Several questions I receive concern the very basic elements of supply chain risk management. Since reading “Categorization of Supply Chain Risk and Risk Management” by Norrman and Lindroth (2004) I often referred to it, to describe the different aspects.
Framework
Norrman and Lindroth suggest a three dimensional framework to analyze different supply chain risk management issues (figure 1). The dimensions are:
In retrospect forecasts of the future often seem dull or at least miss important aspects of the actual realization. In 2000 the Ritchie and Brindley analyzed effects of the uprising Internet on supply chain management and especially newly emerging risks associated with them for small and medium sized enterprises. I wrote this review from the view of 2000 as well so you can decide yourself to what degree you see their hypothesis already fulfilled.
Risk in supply chains can be included in several different ways into the decision making process.
No Risk
A statement in many supply chain models is that some/most/all parameters of the model are fixed (e.g. fixed demand, zero probability of a hurricane).
The result is, if the real value of this parameter diverges from the assumptions, the results of the model will be flawed to a certain degree (up to completely unusable).
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 .
I am often astounded by the fact how many great articles I haven’t read yet. A good scientific paper contains an comprehensive description of the methodologies used, a theoretical foundation and literature review from which hypothesis are drawn, which are then confirmed or rejected in the course of the paper. And of course, it is always a plus to actually find some results in the course of the analysis.
In this article the authors, Giunipero and Eltantawy (2004) explore situational factors which contribute to the company’s level of investment into risk management activities. These factors are:
Submitted by Daniel Dumke on Wed, 2011-02-23 10:35
Paper
Supply Chain Risk Management: Outlining an Agenda for Future Research
Year:
2003
I just stumbled upon one of the articles I already read about a year ago, shortly after I started my research. Beside indication of a future research agenda (see as well here), Jüttner et al. (2003) also explain some fundamental concepts of supply chain risk management.
Uncertainty can be categorized in continuous risk, more slowly changing patterns, and disruptions, which describe abrupt changes in a system.
Tomlin (2006) investigates the question which supply chain strategies perform best when dealing with the later.
Mitigation vs. Contingency Planning
From case studies analyzed in literature the author first deducts disruption management strategies used in practices. The summary can be seen in figure 1.
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.
