“The Russian war

in Ukraine and the harsh Covid-19 shutdown in many industrial Chinese cities

has amplified supply chain vulnerabilities to such an extent that in March

2022, only 7% of sea shipments from Asia to North America arrived on time,

while 6% were on time for the Asia-to-Europe route”.

A local South

African hardware store has ordered a shipment of plastic covers, as well as

their most popular paint colour from Asia which travels through Europe to South

Africa. An organisation that is aware of the risk that their products might not

be delivered on time, needs to put a contingency plan in place to mitigate the

risk of running out of stock.

Question

: What should be performed first by the organisation before a

contingency plan is done?