Engineering choices and qualification determine which alternatives the business can use when its primary source fails.
A manufacturer can qualify two suppliers and still depend on one upstream facility. If that facility stops production, switching the purchase order may leave the company facing the same shortage.
Establishing whether an alternative removes the exposure requires work on the dependencies behind it and its suitability for the intended application. Procurement shares those decisions with engineering and operations, including the investment needed to prepare another source.
At DPW Amsterdam 2026, “Supply Chain Resilience: Navigating Disruption in a Volatile World” connected those decisions to equipment design and daily customer deliveries. Hermasa Canning Technology President Sara Rodríguez and Barry Callebaut CPO Frank Arendt discussed the preparation required to keep supply moving, in a session moderated by Dr. Maria Jesus Saenz of MIT.
Their examples show why resilience work needs to begin while the business still has time to create options. They also set a more demanding test for a backup source: can it meet the requirement under the conditions that would disable the primary source?
Start with the Dependency that Could Stop Delivery
Supplier visibility is useful when it helps the business understand what could interrupt a product or customer commitment. A large supplier with several substitutes may require less intervention than a small producer of a part that cannot be replaced quickly.
Rodríguez described the need to connect visibility to critical points in manufacturing. Understanding a supplier’s process and the dependencies behind it helps explain where the company needs to intervene to maintain production and delivery.
For procurement, the next step is to connect the dependency to its consequence. Which machine or product relies on it? How long could the business operate without replacement supply? What would have to change to use another source? These answers direct attention toward the constraints that deserve qualification work or investment.
Engineering Choices Determine How Easily Supply Can Change
Rodríguez put the timing of that work plainly: “resilience starts in engineering.” Hermasa’s machines operate over a long lifetime. A component selected during design can later become difficult to replace, with consequences for keeping the customer’s equipment running.
That observation places procurement’s knowledge of supply availability alongside engineering’s understanding of performance and compatibility. When those teams work together early, they can examine whether a specification unnecessarily narrows the supplier base or creates a difficult maintenance dependency.
The same reasoning applies when qualifying an alternative. Commercial availability does not establish technical suitability. The business needs to understand the tests, approvals and changes required to use the part in its actual application. Procurement can then assess the full cost and lead time of switching.
That assessment can inform a decision to standardize a part, establish a long-term supply arrangement or fund a redesign. Each choice should be evaluated against the consequence of losing access to the original source.
Qualification Turns Another Site into an Operating Option
Arendt described liquid chocolate delivered to customers daily or several times a day. That schedule leaves little tolerance for a production problem.
Across a network of 70 production sites, Barry Callebaut cross-qualifies multiple sites for particular customer locations and recipes. It also cross-qualifies sugar, fats and dairy suppliers across sites. The preparation creates flexibility when raw materials are short, production is interrupted or demand exceeds what the primary site can supply.
Procurement leaders can make readiness more explicit. Record which alternative has passed qualification, where capacity has been confirmed and which dependencies it shares with the primary source. A site that requires substantial preparation should carry a different readiness assessment from one the business can use promptly.
This also clarifies the investment decision. Qualification has a cost, and maintaining every possible alternative may be impractical. The business can prioritize the options that protect its most consequential commitments.
Test Alternatives Against the Conditions that Could Disable Them
A continuity plan should account for the reason a switch might be needed. Moving to another supplier in the same constrained region may offer little protection against a regional disruption. A route change may be ineffective if both options depend on the same unavailable material.
Arendt described adapting the production footprint as conditions across North America changed. Rodríguez discussed the need to respond to a diplomatic problem that affected the ability to serve customers. In each case, geography influenced the ability to deliver.
These examples support testing alternatives against specific scenarios. The aim is to establish whether an option remains usable under the conditions the plan is intended to address. Finance can then assess whether the cost of preparing it is justified by the exposure it reduces.
Use AI to Extend the Work Around Those Choices
Arendt described a sourcing analytics team that studies ingredient supply, from sugar harvests to the effect of Chinese production on New Zealand milk availability. Analytical tools help turn that volume of information into a curated view for buyers. The value depends on what buyers can do with the warning: secure supply, reconsider allocation or begin qualification while time remains.
Saenz connected prediction with execution and learning from disruption. She also discussed time to recover and time to survive, measures that direct attention to whether the business can keep operating until supply is restored.
Those measures can inform a specific continuity decision. If a critical component will run out before its supplier can recover, procurement and operations need another response. Engineering may need to approve a substitute; finance may need to fund qualification or inventory. The work should focus on the dependency that threatens delivery, with review depth proportionate to the consequence.
Exiger’s 1EXIGER.AI maps multi-tier dependencies and supports analysis of alternate supply. That connection helps teams examine whether a proposed source changes the underlying exposure before they commit to it.
The next continuity review should establish which alternatives the business can use today and which still need work. Resilience improves when procurement, engineering and operations fund and complete that work before the primary source fails.
Table of Contents
Get in Touch
Learn how you can build a more resilient supply chain.
