I just found the first supply chain risk related paper from a professor (Biying Shou) of one of my alma maters: The City University of Hong Kong, and I think this a good time to have a look at his work.
Decisions within a company are not made on pure rational grounds. Assuming that there is the will to make a rational decision, nevertheless limits in information gathering, computing capabilities and memory lead to irrational conclusions (bounded rationality).
So the goal must be to enhance rational decision making and for this end Kaufmann et al. (2009) developed a framework to combat irrationality.
We already know that supply chain disruptions can be quite costly, and have not only direct but also indirect effects (eg. on stock prices). So do all supply chain disruptions have the same effect on the focal company? Of course not, but what are the driving factors that influence the impact?
In their conceptual note Craighead et al. (2007) analyse the factors of the impact supply chain disruptions.
This time I’d like to have a look at supply chain risk management from a strategic point of view: What are the prerequisites in the design and culture of an organization to mitigate supply chain risks? The title of the article I review today is: “The organizational antecedents of a firm’s supply chain agility for risk mitigation and response”.
Method
The authors use structural equation modeling technique to establish the relations within their model (figure 1).
At the moment I am focussing more on the interviews I am conducting for my research, so I am not reading as much anymore. I therefore try to select articles which are both useful for my research and my blog.
Practitioners often complain about the huge gap between practice and research related to the estimation of risks. In theory all is easy: A disruptive event just gets a probability and outcome assigned. But in practice these figures most often have to be estimated.
Todays article by Knemeyer et al. (2009) covers exactly this dilemma and tries to answer the question of how to plan for a catastrophe.
Process orientation may or may not be a very hip topic right now. Nevertheless effective processes are a foundation for company performance. Lockamy, Childerhouse, Disney, Towill and McCormack (2008), analyze and explain the impact of process maturity and uncertainty on supply chain performance, the full paper can be obtained here free of charge.
This is already my second article (click here for the first) about managing supply chain risks in the chemical industry. This time by Paul R. Kleindorfer and Germaine H. Saad from Wharton and the Widener University. But this industry is quite interesting since it has to withstand a multitude of risks, so let’s get right to business:
