This article presents a comprehensive practice oriented framework for managing supply chain disruptions by Sunil Chopra and ManMohan S. Sodhi. The article has been published in the MIT Sloan Management Review in 2004. The framework covers everything from risk analysis to the selection of the risk mitigation strategy.
A large proportion of the efforts in supply chain risk management focus on the supply side, even though, using common definitions of supply chain management, the supply chain of course not only contains the suppliers but also the customers down to the end-customer.
Focussing on the supply side, Hallikas et al. 2005 studied the different classes of supplier relationships and what risk mitigation strategies might be effective with these classes. This classification can help both affected parties, in understanding the effects of risk on their relationship.
For many years sustainability risks have been largely neglected. Reputational damages caused by incidents like the Brent Spar platform can reach tens of millions of dollars. But in a supply chain context companies are not only held responsible for their own actions but also for the actions of their suppliers.
In their 2010 paper Foerstl et al. analyze supplier sustainability risk and develop and test a framework for its mitigation.
There are several scientific research centers on supply chain risks in the US (as around the world): The east coast has several researcher on this topic e.g.
There are many definitions of agility. A supply chain can be defined as agile, when it is flexible and responds quickly to customer needs. Agility can also be seen as a measure to mitigate supply chain risks, building on this thought Dani and Ranganathan (2008) developed a model to mitigate risks using the concept of agility .
Today I just want to highlight a short article from “The Conversation” blog at the Harvard Business Review for you to read. The article, which can be found here, was written by Harold Sirkin, senior parter at the Boston Consulting Group.
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.
Everybody concerned with the task of developing risk mitigation strategies has a list in his mind of different factors influencing a company’s exposure to risk and if you think about it: those factors are probably related.
Example: The number of suppliers for one component can have a huge impact on risk, but the necessity of a high number of (redundant) suppliers may itself be affected by the trust you built with your main supplier. Both trust and having multiple suppliers affect supply chain risk by themselves, but they are also related.
