Post-pandemic adaptation and development of supply chain viability theory

Abstract

The design and management of an efficient, resilient, and viable supply chain (SC) capable of operations and demand fulfillment continuity despite severe disruptions is imperative for the survivability of firms and for providing society with essential goods and services in long-term crises. This Special Issue focuses on SC adaptation and viability as novel decision-making settings for operations research and management science (OR/MS) emerged in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which goes beyond short-term, singular event-driven disruptions. Papers in the Special Issue present new and original OR/MS research to support decision-making related to long-term SC crises with inherent uncertainty about the present and future. Since SC viability theory is relatively new, this Special Issue contributes to advancing our knowledge and application fields for designing and managing SCs as viable systems. We present fundamentals of SC viability theory, review and summarize papers in the Special Issue, and project some future research directions.