A newly formed organization, the X-treme Supply Chain Consortium, will bring together manufacturers, distributors, and logistics service providers to develop a framework for measuring risk factors and analyzing companies' responses to supply chain volatility. The group is an offshoot of the new book X-SCM: The New Science of X-treme Supply Chain Management, a project supported by the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, Sterling Commerce, and CSCMP.

The consortium's aim is "to get people to think about the right set of issues" when assessing and responding to supply chain risk, said Richard Douglass, a manufacturing and logistics executive with IBM/Sterling Commerce, in an interview at CSCMP's 2010 Annual Global Conference in San Diego. Because no single metric can capture the broad array of risk factors, the consortium plans to organize working groups to develop metrics for different risk categories, such as those causing volatility in transportation, sourcing, compliance, and demand, he said. It also plans to eventually examine successes and failures, and identify effective responses to supply chain volatility.

The X-treme Supply Chain Consortium currently has about a dozen members and is seeking more participants. Members are supply chain executives in senior strategic positions, such as vice presidents and directors. For more information about the group, contact Richard Douglass at rdouglass@us.ibm.com.