Map supplier risk and find single points of failure
A tiered view of where my supply base is fragile, scored by likelihood and impact, with mitigation actions per critical item.
The prompt
Help me map supply risk across my supplier base and find the single points of failure.
Critical items and their suppliers: [PART OR CATEGORY, SUPPLIER, COUNTRY/SITE, % OF SUPPLY, ANNUAL SPEND]
Alternate sources available: [QUALIFIED / IN QUALIFICATION / NONE, AND TIME TO SWITCH]
Sub-tier knowledge: [KEY RAW MATERIALS OR SUB-SUPPLIERS, IF KNOWN]
Inventory buffers: [WEEKS OF COVER AT US AND IN THE PIPELINE]
Known concerns: [FINANCIAL HEALTH, GEOPOLITICS, WEATHER, CAPACITY, QUALITY HISTORY]
What each item feeds: [PRODUCTS AND REVENUE DEPENDENT ON IT]
Assess each item on:
- Concentration: single-source, sole-source (only one exists), or geographically clustered.
- Time to recover: how long until supply resumes vs. how long our buffer lasts. Flag any item where recovery time exceeds buffer.
- Revenue at risk if it stops for 4, 8, or 12 weeks.
- Likelihood drivers from my concerns list.
Do not invent supplier financial data, country risk scores, or sub-tier suppliers. Where I should check, write [VERIFY].
Return:
1. A risk table: Item | Supplier | Concentration | Buffer (weeks) | Time to recover | Revenue at risk | Likelihood | Priority.
2. The top 5 single points of failure in plain language.
3. Mitigation options for each (dual source, safety stock, contract terms, design change, supplier monitoring), with rough effort and cost.
4. Early warning signals to monitor for each top risk.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Thinking & Decisions prompts
What to fill in
- QUALIFIED / IN QUALIFICATION / NONE, AND TIME TO SWITCH
- KEY RAW MATERIALS OR SUB-SUPPLIERS, IF KNOWN
- WEEKS OF COVER AT US AND IN THE PIPELINE
- PRODUCTS AND REVENUE DEPENDENT ON IT
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the RTF structure (Role, Task, Format). RTF tells the model who to be, what to do and what shape the answer should take. It is the quickest structure that still gives noticeably better results than a bare request.
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