Normally in supply chain risk management more weightage remains on upstream supply chain risk, which include risk factors around vendor selection, supplier strategy, supply disruption, lead time and quality issues. While on downstream side focus remains largely on fulfilment bottlenecks and demand risk. Along with these key risks, corporates include some strategy around risk of spurious products, but tampering risk remains largely unattended.
Product tampering poses a serious threat to supply chains, potentially resulting in substantial financial, reputational, and operational damage. This risk can take many forms, including contamination, sabotage, or the introduction of harmful substances or devices into products. Modern supply chains frequently cross multiple countries and include various intermediaries, complicating the monitoring of each stage. This complexity heightens the risk of tampering, particularly when security protocols are weak or inconsistently applied.
The recent pager explosions in Lebanon, involved explosives being covertly planted inside pagers and walkie-talkie ordered by Hezbollah. According to reports, pagers seem to be modified during production or supply chain by way of inserting small amounts of explosives into them. Tampering was done in such a manner that functioning of device does not get impacted and keep on working in normal manner. Post alteration these devices were pushed in normal supply chain targeted towards Lebanon. This ensured that user of these devices had no idea of the hidden danger in their own equipment. Months after remaining dormant, they were remotely detonated, causing numerous casualties.
These pagers belonging to Taiwanese brand, Gold Apollo, were not sold directly by this company to Lebanese buyer. In this supply chain a Hungary-based intermediate company, BAC Consulting, was also involved. Where this lapse took place is a matter of investigation for agencies, but it clearly indicates gap in end-to-end supply chain in cross border trade leading to severe risk for the parent company.
For specific categories like pharmaceuticals and food, supply chain professionals are relatively more concerned on safety and integrity of product, as these are more prone to adulteration and pose serious health risks leading to harm or fatalities. Specially in case of cross border trade of these categories, more cautions are taken due to stringent food and drug safety norms in developed countries. In India norms linked to compromise in supply chain of food and drug safety are very comprehensive. Still approach towards adherence of these norms is relatively weaker compared to developed countries.
In order to mitigate the risk of tampering in supply chain professional’s ned to adopt more initiatives and strategies. Which may be linked to packaging, track n trace, strict audit compliance, storage facility access control etc. Adoption of tamper-evident seals and packaging, that show visible signs of any tampering, is one of the packaging related options. While adoption of advanced tracking systems using technologies like GPS, IoT sensors, and RFID tags will allow real-time tracking of products as they move through the supply chain. Wherein any discrepancies or anomalies in the route or handling of goods can trigger alerts and prevent tampering. Apart from technology and systems, human factor plays a crucial role in supply chain management. So, training of supply chain workforce to detect and report signs of tampering will be very critical to avoid such risks.
This incident will lead also to increase in regulatory checks, especially in cross border consignments. In such situations supply chain professionals need to work closely with government and regulatory agencies.
Avoiding such risks entirely might not be possible. Instead, it’s all about how supply chain managers plan for proactive assessment and take necessary to plug the gaps in supply chain. In cases of exceptional, uncontrollable circumstances, Supply chain leaders need to develop strategies to mitigate them and reduce their potential impact.
Supply chain of any organisation is vulnerable to disruptions or threats due to its nature of operation and multiple dependencies. These vulnerabilities can disrupt the flow of goods, services, or information in a supply chain. Origin of these risk can be from various sources, including external events, operational inefficiencies, and technological failures.
Normally in supply chain risk management more weightage remains on upstream supply chain risk, which include risk factors around vendor selection, supplier strategy, supply disruption, lead time and quality issues. While on downstream side focus remains largely on fulfilment bottlenecks and demand risk. Along with these key risks, corporates include some strategy around risk of spurious products, but tampering risk remains largely unattended.
Product tampering poses a serious threat to supply chains, potentially resulting in substantial financial, reputational, and operational damage. This risk can take many forms, including contamination, sabotage, or the introduction of harmful substances or devices into products. Modern supply chains frequently cross multiple countries and include various intermediaries, complicating the monitoring of each stage. This complexity heightens the risk of tampering, particularly when security protocols are weak or inconsistently applied.
The recent pager explosions in Lebanon, involved explosives being covertly planted inside pagers and walkie-talkie ordered by Hezbollah. According to reports, pagers seem to be modified during production or supply chain by way of inserting small amounts of explosives into them. Tampering was done in such a manner that functioning of device does not get impacted and keep on working in normal manner. Post alteration these devices were pushed in normal supply chain targeted towards Lebanon. This ensured that user of these devices had no idea of the hidden danger in their own equipment. Months after remaining dormant, they were remotely detonated, causing numerous casualties.
These pagers belonging to Taiwanese brand, Gold Apollo, were not sold directly by this company to Lebanese buyer. In this supply chain a Hungary-based intermediate company, BAC Consulting, was also involved. Where this lapse took place is a matter of investigation for agencies, but it clearly indicates gap in end-to-end supply chain in cross border trade leading to severe risk for the parent company.
For specific categories like pharmaceuticals and food, supply chain professionals are relatively more concerned on safety and integrity of product, as these are more prone to adulteration and pose serious health risks leading to harm or fatalities. Specially in case of cross border trade of these categories, more cautions are taken due to stringent food and drug safety norms in developed countries. In India norms linked to compromise in supply chain of food and drug safety are very comprehensive. Still approach towards adherence of these norms is relatively weaker compared to developed countries.
In order to mitigate the risk of tampering in supply chain professional’s ned to adopt more initiatives and strategies. Which may be linked to packaging, track n trace, strict audit compliance, storage facility access control etc. Adoption of tamper-evident seals and packaging, that show visible signs of any tampering, is one of the packaging related options. While adoption of advanced tracking systems using technologies like GPS, IoT sensors, and RFID tags will allow real-time tracking of products as they move through the supply chain. Wherein any discrepancies or anomalies in the route or handling of goods can trigger alerts and prevent tampering. Apart from technology and systems, human factor plays a crucial role in supply chain management. So, training of supply chain workforce to detect and report signs of tampering will be very critical to avoid such risks.
This incident will lead also to increase in regulatory checks, especially in cross border consignments. In such situations supply chain professionals need to work closely with government and regulatory agencies.
Avoiding such risks entirely might not be possible. Instead, it’s all about how supply chain managers plan for proactive assessment and take necessary to plug the gaps in supply chain. In cases of exceptional, uncontrollable circumstances, Supply chain leaders need to develop strategies to mitigate them and reduce their potential impact.