SMEs: Be prepared for supply chain risks! Erasmus Project

Project Title

SMEs: Be prepared for supply chain risks!

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

Less than 20% of the German companies surveyed have inadequate action plans for important dangers and crises. As regards cyber risks, a survey conducted in Germany has shown that 48% of the participating companies were directly or indirectly affected by cyber interference in the last five years. A similar situation has been found in Austria, where 80% of the companies have already been confronted with IT incidents in the past, whereby a third of these being attributed to cyber-attacks. 24% of the cases, according to the SORA study, were due to negligent behavior on the part of employees or management.
Many of these companies, regardless of size, are working in global supply chains and managing the latter has increased the data being exchanged among the companies. This increased data exchange bears several risks as illustrated above. As further risks, severe damage of data and/or IT infrastructure, the loss of proprietary knowledge and unintended revelation of crucial business insights to other supply chain actors can be named.
Against the impact on SMEs in all European economies, the project will address risks small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) may be exposed to due to digital interactions in supply chains.
The main objective of the project is to develop a VET training called “SMEs: Be prepared for supply chain risks” intended to better prepare SMEs for identifying and handling supply chain risks.
The project targets SMEs, in particular, because they are important actors in value chains and a vital component of EU economies, but at the same time, they typically have limited resources to address and manage the supply chain risks properly. Additionally, the project addresses young professionals to prepare them for starting a position in an SME or even starting a new venture.
The proposed project will be carried out transnationally as a supply chain – which is a connected chain involving several actors in the upstream and downstream flow of products, services, finance and information, extending from the point of origin to the point of consumption. Furthermore, it increasingly involves a dynamic transnational network to perform the activities. Thus, supply chain risks are also a transnational challenge and one can see different stages of maturity in different countries and industries. For example, in the automotive or pharmaceutical sectors supply chain integration is quite advanced while in the fashion or furniture industries this is not the case. For this reason, the project is based on a diverse set of industry sectors to which the “be prepared” VET training will be deployed.
The methodology used in this project is based on a collaborative approach, thus our target groups, the SMEs, in particular, are involved from the beginning of the project, they thus function as sparring partners to increase the actual use of the be prepared training after the end of the project. The development of the training itself is supported by and takes advantage of recent eLearning techniques and learning labs.
The outputs will be a best practice report and a motivational video to raise awareness regarding the project and its relevance. The “be prepared” training package and a practical guidance toolbox to support the successful implementation of the training package.
As supply chain works across countries, firms can benefit from cross-national solutions. In this project, SMEs working in Austria, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Portugal will be involved. The partners have been chosen deliberately based on their in-depth experience regarding SMEs, supply chain management and knowledge management at the research, teaching and practical level as well as their long-term experience in adult education. Furthermore, different types of countries in terms of size, industry structure, cultural and legal contexts, and ICT policies are involved.
As the world has become much riskier, a focus on supply chain risk management is of utmost relevance not only for (small) companies but for societies at large.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 192650 Eur

Project Coordinator

TALLINNA TEHNIKAULIKOOL & Country: EE

Project Partners

• Hochschule RheinMain
• UNIVERSITAET GRAZ
• UNIVERSIDADE DO MINHO
• COTEC Portugal Associacao Empresarial para a Inovacao
• INSTITUTE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DELLA TUSCIA