A very interesting part of Supply Chain Risk Management deals with the impact of uncertainty on the supply chain design process. Van der Vorst and Beulens (2002) address this topic, and focus on the redesign of supply chains.
They claim that sources of uncertainty can be a key driver for chain redesign and after analyzing the literature and own research (case study) they present a tool for supply chain redesign where the sources of uncertainty support the selection of the relevant strategy.
If you think about it. Postponement is one of the more involving strategies available in supply chain management. At least from a design perspective, postponement requires changes to the value-generation process, which may comprise several echelons within the supply chain.
The paper I review today analyzed the implementation of postponement strategies in China and suggests factors to help with the decision which kind of postponement to select.
The foods supply chain satisfies one of the most basic Maslowian needs.
Interruptions can quickly become major crisis. Assessment and reactions to risks therefore seems to be a vital point.
This article presents a framework by Dani and Deep on how specific food supply chain risks can be analyzed and how reactions can be tailored.
Agent-based supply chain models are build using small entities (agents), which might represent a single company.
Each of the agents has its own goals and rules of operation programmed into a computer. The interaction between several agents of this kind leads to a more realistic and complex behavior of the system.
Supply chain mapping can be a great tool to foster the understanding and from its results improve a supply chain network overall. Supply chain mapping can also be used to analyze the risks of a supply chain and improve its resilience (for an example in the blog follow this link).
The article “Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties” by Hau L. Lee is a good starting point for SCRM, since it combines a simple, business ready framework for two major supply chain risks.Furthermore it includes many examples to reinforce the theoretical framework.
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:
