Identifying risks through STEEPLE

Preparation is key to being ready for a risk event. If you are quick to respond, you can minimise the disruption and possibly save money and time for your organisation.

The best preparation begins with identifying how and when a risk event is likely to take place. It makes sense to work with colleagues from across the organisation (for example operations, IT, warehousing, human resources, legal) who will contribute their insights based on their own experience of risk events. This involves the development of cross functional teams.

These are some of the ways you can obtain information about risks WITHIN the organisation and also WITHIN the supply chain.

• Brainstorming
• Questionnaires
• Business process reviews
• Industry benchmarking
• Scenario analysis
• Risk Assessment workshops using tools such as STEEPLE and Kraljic
• Incident investigation
• Auditing and inspection

STEEPLE is a popular and simple management method for understanding what is going on outside your organisation and which can identify risks that will influence the quality and delivery of your products to external customers.

STEEPLE focuses on areas that have the potential to change from day to day and week to week. Organisations have control over their own internal resources. You cannot change the external environment, but you can put in place systems and processes so you are able to respond to external changes.

The word ‘STEEPLE’ is made up from the first letters of seven key areas of change:

Identifying risks is perhaps one of the most challenging stages of the whole risk management cycle. STEEPLE and other analytical tools can be used by a cross-functional team to bring together experience and expertise from across your organisation.