With 206 countries and nearly 11000 athletes participated in over 306 events, the 2016 Summer Olympics overlooking the picturesque Rio saw breathtaking performances.

A fact equally worth pondering over is the magnitude and numbers involved in the supply chain working in parallel to deliver a great experience! In hosting the Olympic Games, Brazil procured an estimated 30 million products including 6 million meals and 1.8 million sports equipment items with a procurement budget over $2 billion.

From sportsmanship to supply chain management insights, the world's’ greatest show certainly had a lot to offer! Nevertheless, having a clear focus on being the ‘most sustainable Olympics ever’ the Rio 2016 Olympics had developed a comprehensive sustainability plan outlined as below:

• Establishment of requirements to define and disseminate the evaluation criteria and minimum requirements to be considered in supplier analyses.
• Development and certification of suppliers and licensees to include workshops and training sessions for suppliers and licensees, especially those active in sectors identified as critical.
• Procurement to include sustainability requirements and evaluation criteria throughout the goods and services procurement process, notably in the analyses of total cost of acquisition and life-cycle.
• Contract management/supplier and licensee compliance monitoring to include sustainability aspects in supplier management mechanisms, such as record management, auditing, reporting and implementation of corrective actions. These activities shall be applied continuously upon the implementation of each contract.
• Dissolution/final disposal of products management to plan for and control the final disposal of all products, packaging and waste, through comprehensive logistical planning.

(Source: https://www.rio2016.com)

So here are the key takeaways from Rio’s supply chain guide to provide valuable insights to scale up the supply chain strategies within your organization:

1. Sustainability is the key: The 2016 Rio Olympics’ sustainability plan aims to achieve a lower environmental footprint along with a greater social inclusion and economic prosperity. Furthermore, a sustainable supply chain encompasses inclusive growth including all three; Environmental, Social and economic dimensions and all organizations agnostic of their scale of operations should focus on achieving sustainability through embedding best practices in the supply chain.

2. Supply Chain Transparency and Resilience: Ensure supply chain transparency in your organization through ethical procurement practices including prompt payments, checks against slavery, supplier qualification against black-listing and adherence to requisite compliance. These efforts not only would help your organization be better prepared for any unforeseen risks but also help build a resilient supply chain. Supplier Information Management Systems can help meet this key objective. Moreover, from scalability point of view information systems can ensure standardization is followed across suppliers.

 3. Supplier Collaboration and development: Along with supplier qualification, providing requisite training and certifications for suppliers, organizations now need to look forward for their suppliers as strategic partners so as to collaborate and derive mutual value in the long term.

HICX believe with the nature and complexity of modern day procurement functions it has become essential to invest in transformation efforts to automate the procurement function. Future is automation and collaboration in order to scale both horizontally and vertically.