The purpose of this is verifying the business flow between Ericsson and the
supplier/service provider and defining the critical parts and risk sources in the
process, i.e. products, components, sites, etc. The goal is to get a better
understanding of what the probability and impact of the risks are. So far, more than
10,000 components have been analyzed, mainly of first and second tier suppliers.
First, each component is classified into four different classes depending on the
number of sources:
(1) The product is currently sourced from more than one approved source (e.g. two
or more manufacturers or one manufacturer with two or more sites).
(2) The product is currently sourced from one approved source; other sources are
approved and available but not used.
(3) The product is currently sourced from one approved source; other sources are
available and approved but no tools, masks or other equipment needed are in
place.
(4) The product is currently sourced from one supplier. No additional manufacturer
is available.
Ericsson then tries to understand the impact by looking at how long an accident will
affect deliveries. This is expressed by “business recovery time” (BRT). Components are
put into four different classes:
(1) It takes less than three months to get deliveries from an alternative source.
(2) Three to eight months to get approval and deliveries from an alternative source.
(3) Nine to 12 months, re-design the only alternative.
(4) 12 months, re-design of a unit/product of high complexity.