Functional, practical small-business tools and partnerships are imperative to NSBA members and opportunities for all Americans.
The U.S. Department of Commerce recently unveiled an analytic risk assessment tool to better inform government efforts to mitigate supply chain risks threatening small-business operations.
NSBA members and staff regularly meet with the Department of Commerce to discuss maximizing opportunities for small business.
Known as the SCALE Tool, this new resource is designed to provide critical insights into vulnerabilities across the supply chain ecosystem, enabling the U.S. government to be more proactive and strategic in addressing issues related to supply chain security.
Utilizing data sets from various U.S. government agencies, SCALE draws from over 40 indicators across geopolitical, logistical, and technological categories to provide an in-depth evaluation of criticality, vulnerability, and resilience.
Additionally, SCALE comprehensively assesses a wide range of factors affecting supply chains, including climate challenges and geopolitical tensions to better inform decision making that affects export and import policy and regulations.
The Department of Commerce has outlined four primary uses cases for the SCALE Tool:
Generating unique insights to help the U.S. government’s current efforts to build supply chain resiliency,
Informing the U.S. government’s priorities and agendas,
Pricing and quantifying risk, and
Understanding foreign adversary risk.
Contemporaneous to the launch of the SCALE Tool, Commerce officials also announced expansion of its partnerships with industry groups and key trade associations including, NSBA, the Association for Supply Chain Management, the Council for Supply Chain Management Professionals, the Institute for Supply Management, the Industries Studies Association, and Georgetown and Carnegie Mellon University.
At this time, SCALE is not be available to the private sector; however, U.S. government officials said they will engage with industry representatives to collaborate on its findings, and NSBA will continue to work to ensure small business remains a key part of those collaborations.
NSBA looks forward to furthering its relationships and impacts for small business through work with the Dept. of Commerce.
Read the full Dept. of Commerce release here.
