1.

Critically analyze Nissan's business continuity plan (BCP) to recover its supply chain
operations.

Nissans’ business continuity plan (BCP) is set up in Yokohama at its Global Disaster Control

Headquarters (GDCH) (Aggarwal & Srivastava, 2016). Nissan’s approach is employees’ safest is

first. They also made the safety of suppliers, dealers and other affiliated companies a priority

(Aggarwal & Srivastava, 2016). The company started a safety confirmation system to ensure the

safety of their supply chain and employees. At first the system was e-mail based but Nissan

moved toward a web access base plan which was successful during this time. The company had

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been practicing evacuation routes and centers well before this time so they were prepared,

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which was extremely important to their resilience. Due to their prior practice of drills and

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simulations yearly, Nissan was able to conduct recovery operations in an expedited and focused
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manner (Aggarwal & Srivastava, 2016). The Nissan Senior Vice-President at the time, Hitoshi
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Kawaguchi said once you prepare yourself for all kinds of disasters then you don’t panic
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(Aggarwal & Srivastava, 2016). The company did just that, due to being prepared they handled

the earthquake with strategy, and calmness. Nissan only took one month to resume all
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operations while other companies were not as lucky. Because of all of these factors Nissan’s BCP

is renowned compared to other companies like its own. The company was able to deliver cars to
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the United States and Chinese markets when its competitors were not able to due to these
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tragedies (Aggarwal & Srivastava, 2016). Nissan displayed a great resiliency to the disasters
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happening at their doorstep.

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 2. What are the operational strategies for managing supply chain disruptions?
Evaluate Nissan on each of these.

The major operational strategies for managing supply chain disruption include: stockpile

inventory, diversify supply, demand management, back-up supply and a strengthened supply

chain. Nissan had asked its Tier 2 and 3 suppliers to use alternate sourcing for their parts to

diversify its supply. The company has stockpiled about 2,300 cars that were ready and waiting to

be loaded and transported to the United States but were lost to the tsunami (Aggarwal &

Srivastava, 2016). Nissan displayed a good upstream and downstream supply integration system

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during these crisis’s which shows opportunity to have a proper back up of supply. It is essential

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for a company to diversify its supply for managing the supply chain effectively. For example,

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Nissan planned to ask its Tier 2 and 3 suppliers to use alternate sourcing for their parts to
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ensure an uninterrupted supply of component parts in the future (Aggarwal & Srivastava, 2016).
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Nissan showed great alignment between the companies in its supply chain and diversified the
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supply well. Nissan had a great management team that lead the company through these

disasters promptly. The company’s data analytics programs also helped manage demand leading
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to a good operational strategy.

3. What resilience strategies did Nissan use?

Nissan used multiple resilient strategies throughout the tragedies in the case. The first one

being the set up and function of the Global Disasters Control headquarters in Yokohama. The

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 company uses a flexible supply chain strategy which lead to better resilience overall.

Throughout the read Nissan displayed proper vertical and horizontal supply chain integration.

For example, as stated earlier, Nissan planned to ask its Tier 2 and 3 suppliers to use alternate

sourcing for their parts to ensure an uninterrupted supply of component parts in the future

(Aggarwal & Srivastava, 2016). The company had a well-designed risk management program

which was displayed throughout the case. Their supply chain executed flexibility throughout the

impacts of the disasters.

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4. In your opinion, had Nissan developed the perfect recovery strategy or is there still
room for improvement for future crisis?

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In my opinion, Nissan developed an almost perfect recovery strategy for these disasters. It is
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clear their recovery strategy was better than any other automakers in Japan at that time. They
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developed a strong risk management strategy along with resiliency. The risk management
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strategy has been implemented and researched by other companies due to its success rate. The

resilient strategy is acknowledged by experts all over the world. Of course, there is always room
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for improvement when it comes recovery strategy. Nissan can improve their strategy on

adversity that can arise in the future due to other disasters and crisis.
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 References:
Aggarwal, S. and Srivastava, M.K. (2016). Nissan: Recovering Supply Chain Operations. Ontario,
Canada: Ivey Publishing. 16 Pages. Product Number 9B20M114.

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