GC Insight worked with InterTradeIreland (ITI) to help them build stronger cross border supply chains across the island of Ireland.

The UK’s exit from the EU, the Northern Ireland Protocol and the after effects of the pandemic created complexity and uncertainties for Irish businesses. To address the changes in trading relationships, ITI created a Supply Chain Support pilot programme to better understand the impact on Irish businesses and to strengthen and future proof the important north-south supply chains. 

In partnership with Winning Moves, ITI developed a tool to assess the robustness, agility and resilience of existing and potential future SME supply chains. Thirty cross-border traders took part in the pilot, guided by a specialised consultant.

Thirty cross-border traders were then invited to pilot the tool, guided by a supply chain consultant who worked with the firm to better understand and address potential issues and/or opportunities for efficiencies in their supply chains, to drive performance improvement, build supply chain resilience and support participants to grow existing and service new product/service development opportunities. 

The pilot comprised four stages:

• The creation of a supply chain assessment and development business diagnostic tool
• Complete assessments with cross-border traders and create a bespoke action plan
• One to one consultancy to address the actions identified in the assessment
• An interim and final evaluation of the programme

A consortium led by Winning Moves including trusted partners The Discovery Partnership and Centre for Competitiveness delivered the supply chain assessment and managed the programme delivery, and our R&E team conducted the interim and final evaluations of the pilot. 

Some of the key findings that have emerged are: 

• All businesses who were interviewed believed that their supply chain is or will be more resilient as a result of participating in the pilot project.
• Those businesses have either commenced or are planning to follow-up with leads for new suppliers and/or implement digital systems for supply chain management.
• Of those businesses that participated in the survey, a strong majority were satisfied with:

• The initial supply chain and business proficiency assessment
• Insight driven plan development
• Consultancy support
• The final report and plan.

These high satisfaction ratings held through the initial stages through to the end of the programme, with 90% of participants saying they would recommend the programme to others, as reflected in comments:

“I really thought the diagnostic tool at the beginning was brilliant.The mentor was super. All of it was.” 

“I would highly recommend [the programme]. It would definitely be a 10. It just gave us the confidence and the knowledge that pulled everything together. It is exactly what we needed.”

The final report makes recommendations on how to strengthen the programme should it be rolled out further. 

InterTradeIreland is a trade and business development implementation body whose mission is to improve competitiveness and generate economic growth and create sustainable, quality jobs in the north and south of Ireland through increased trade and cooperation on innovation and business development opportunities.