If recent years have taught supply chain professionals anything, it’s this: disruptions are not exceptions, they’re recurring events. Leading companies are now stress-testing their supply chains, not as a one-time project, but as a recurring capability. And with dedicated supply chain simulation tools this is becoming both practical and scalable.
This blog post walks through the real mechanics of supply chain stress testing, and offers a taste of what’s covered in full detail in our latest white paper.
What Is Supply Chain Stress Testing?
Stress-testing means deliberately injecting disruptions into your supply chain model to evaluate how the system behaves. It’s not about finding the “optimal plan” like with traditional APS tools. It’s about exploring scenarios where things go wrong, and identifying how to fix them before it costs you.
It’s a shift in mindset: from optimizing for efficiency to planning for resilience.
Typical questions stress-testing aims to answer:
- What happens if a Tier-1 supplier goes down for two weeks?
- If we have a surge in demand in one region, do we have the transport and inventory to respond?
- If customs delays a shipment, how long until store inventories are affected?
By stress-testing, you’re not guessing, you’re quantifying. You compare different mitigation strategies (rerouting, sourcing alternatives, buffer stock) and see their effects across cost, service level, and lead time, in hard numbers.
A Step-by-Step Practical Approach
The white paper outlines a 5-step stress test framework, which any supply chain team can apply:
- Define the critical flow: Focus on one product or customer segment. Don’t start with the full supply chain
- Build a baseline model: Model your real supply chain digitally (suppliers, warehouses, routes, costs, demand and other basic parameters)
- Identify disruption scenarios: Choose real-world risks (or opportunities)
- Simulate each scenario: Adjust the model, run simulations, and measure KPIs (stockouts, costs, service levels)
- Test mitigation options: Try alternatives and compare their impact side by side.
With a simulation tool like SCM Globe, teams can perform these steps visually, without having any mathematical background.
Why SCM Globe Enterprise?
SCM Globe’s new Enterprise Version turns simulation into a real planning asset:
It’s not a theoretical, complicated tool. It’s built for “street smart” supply chain professionals to all understand and act together.
Stress-testing won’t remove all risk, but it turns risk into readiness. Download the full white paper for detailed steps, a complete case study, and platform insights.