Risk Trends 2025 and Beyond: Supply Chain, Capital Projects, and Operations

Are you prepared to detect and prevent risk trends that disrupt facility operations, and cause significant cost and schedule overruns?

Imagine you’re managing a major construction project. Everything is going smoothly until unexpected expenses start piling up, a critical shipment of materials gets delayed, and suddenly the project is weeks behind schedule and possibly overbudget. 

This scenario highlights the fragile nature of managing supply chains and capital projects, especially without the right technological controls in place. While sometimes the root cause is the lack of an experienced project manager, often it is something outside the control of the project manager — like an unexpected material delay or poor weather conditions.

Statistics Canada reports that 40 percent of Canadian industries are highly vulnerable to external demand and supply shocks. These industries, which account for a quarter of Canada’s economic output, face risks in global supply chains, which need to be carefully managed. 

Major disruptions in supply chain often leads to very costly downtime in production facilities.

Mitigate disruptions

Cost overruns are one of the biggest risks for significant projects. Unexpected expenses, scope changes, or inaccurate cost estimates can blow budgets out of the water. This puts immense strain on your resources and jeopardizes the completion of the project. 

These resource constraints can delay project timelines, as can factors like adverse weather, regulatory approvals, and/or technical challenges. So, if a shipment of materials is delayed because of a storm, the project schedule can be drawn out, increasing costs and pushing back completion dates. Resource constraints — including a lack of skilled labour, materials, equipment, and funding — can halt your business’ work in its tracks. 

Scope creep is a sneaky cause of inflated timelines and budgets. The inflow of continual change orders leads to added costs and delays — causing the initial plan to spiral into a financial and logistical nightmare.

Supply chain disruptions are a constant threat. Natural disasters, geopolitical events, or supplier issues can delay materials and drive price increases. Consider developing relationships with multiple suppliers, especially local ones, to avoid disrupting production operations in the case of a political conflict or a major wildfire. Often, experienced project managers plan for high-risk resource and material issues and have contingency plans in place.

By leveraging technology controls like project management software, real-time tracking systems, and predictive analytics, businesses can help prevent these operational challenges. These tools allow for better monitoring of costs, timelines, and resource availability, so you can respond more quickly to unexpected issues. 

Why stop there? Here are other risks to consider:

• Health and safety incidents
• Regulatory non-compliance
• Quality control issues
• Technology failures
• Adverse environmental impacts

Questions to consider: 

• How do you anticipate and detect quality, cost, and material supply issues?
• Are data analytics being used to prevent, detect, and monitor billing (like duplicate payments) or construction quality issues in supply chain, capital projects, and operations? 
• How will you monitor the external risks — like extreme weather or permit delay — that may disrupt the project?