I have a running list in my head of the things that cause supply chain problems. Inventory issues. Bad vendors. Technology that doesn’t talk to each other. Processes that only one person knows. Contracts that don’t actually protect you.
But if I had to pick the single most common root cause behind the most painful supply chain failures I’ve seen, it would be this:
A single point of failure that nobody noticed until it was too late.
What a single point of failure looks like in real life
It’s not always obvious. Sometimes it’s a vendor — the one supplier you rely on for a critical component, who has been reliable for years, right up until they’re not.
Sometimes it’s a person. The warehouse manager who knows everything about how your operation works, and who quits without two weeks notice. Suddenly nobody knows where anything is or why half the processes work the way they do.
Sometimes it’s a system. The spreadsheet that one person maintains. The integration that was built by a contractor two years ago and nobody fully understands anymore.
In every case, the thing that makes it a single point of failure isn’t just that it can break. It’s that when it breaks, nothing else can fill in. There’s no backup. No redundancy. No documented process for handling it.
Why this keeps happening
Single points of failure usually develop gradually and for understandable reasons. You found a vendor who works great and stuck with them. You promoted the person who knew the most and relied on them more and more. You built the spreadsheet because it solved the problem quickly.
The problem isn’t any of those individual decisions. It’s that nobody ever asked: what happens if this breaks?
The fix isn’t complicated
Map your single points of failure. List every critical vendor, every key person, every core process or system. For each one, ask: if this disappeared tomorrow, what would happen? If the answer is “it would be very bad,” you have a single point of failure.
Qualify backups before you need them. For vendor dependencies, find and qualify a second source — even if you never use them. Just knowing you could switch if you had to changes your leverage and your risk profile.
Write things down. The knowledge in your team’s heads is a single point of failure. Documenting processes is unglamorous work, but it’s also how you stop being one resignation away from an operational crisis.
Build it into your review cycle. As your business changes, new single points of failure emerge. Check for them regularly.
It’s easier to prevent than to recover
I’ve helped companies navigate supply chain crises that stemmed from a single point of failure that was sitting there, visible, for months before it broke. The cost of addressing it beforehand would have been a fraction of the cost of dealing with it after.
The goal isn’t to have zero risk. The goal is to know where your risks are and make intentional decisions about which ones you’re willing to carry. That’s what good supply chain management actually looks like.
Mina Hanna is the founder of KD Hanna, a supply chain consulting firm helping startups and growing businesses build resilient operations. Get in touch →