ISM-Buffalo, Inc.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic with its variants, is impacting supply chains in different parts of the world at different times, and will continue to do so. Extreme weather events, which have unleashed environmental catastrophes leading to loss of human lives, continue to prevent areas around the world from producing and moving materials. Cyber security issues are disrupting systems and impacting supply chains while shutting down businesses, geo-political issues which could threaten our supply of energy and semi-conductor chips, the looming longshoreman potential strike and how it could impact our already overwhelmed ports in California and lastly the "bull whip effect" which could cause inventory issues for companies in 2022. What supply chain disruptions should we expect in 2022? When will this global supply chain chaos end? Will we get back to normal?

ISM®'s Utility Purchasing Management Group (UPMG) Annual Conference is recognized as one of the premier educational events within the utility supply chain industry. Given the current environment and the impact to supply chain, this virtual event will focus on resilience. Working with our executive committee of utilities professionals, suppliers and thought leaders—and pulling from our continued research data on the impact of COVID-19—we have put together a focused virtual event packed with education, and yes, connection with other supply chain professionals and suppliers within the utilities industry. LEARN MORE AT www.ismworld.org/upmg

The length and complexity, the number of geographically distributed firms, and the number of products that modern supply chains are tasked with delivering to consumers have grown exponentially over the past several decades. Regional supply chains have transformed into global ones with IP and related proprietary information being dispersed across firms’ extended enterprises. Couple these trends with the increase in digitization and the larger presence of internet-enabled technologies, and the number of attack vectors for malevolent actors has outpaced potential protections and safeguards. Succinctly stated, supply chains are vulnerable to IP theft. But questions remain, such as which parts of supply chains are the most vulnerable? What technologies exist to help protect IP? What is missing, and what can be done? The following measures are needed to better protect IP throughout supply chains: (1) the implementation of training for supply chain personnel to match the scale and scope of the increasingly pervasive vulnerabilities of IP in supply chains, (2) the implementation of protocols for traceability and tracking of raw materials at the beginning of the supply chain, and across entities of the supply chain, ideally through an established set of standards for IP protections in the onboarding process, and (3) the establishment of a detection, mitigation, and recovery strategy such that firms have a balanced approach to handling IP theft.