Prioritizing supply chain resilience and Six Sigma indicators using a fuzzy Delphi-SWARA approach: A real-world case study

PurposeGrowth in a number of the supply chain (SC) disruptions threatens the enterprises globally. Earlier studies and reports say that many organizations go out of businesses within two or three years after they experience a major disruption. Therefore, companies in today’s volatile business arena need to possess the necessary resilience level to combat supply china disruptions. This is even more important for organizations of developing nations, which are constantly struggling to gain the advantages of globalization and to grab the new opportunities. Thus, this paper aims to help organizations understand their SC resilience level through a framework.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology comprises integrated Delphi – fuzzy logic approach in identifying formative elements of SC resilience from a diverse resilience related body of knowledge and distinguish key obstacles of SC resilience based on their performance level.FindingsFindings reveal that SC flexibility components such as sourcing, manufacturing and logistic flexibility are the major contributors of SC resilience index of case organization. Similarly, lack of risk management culture, inter-organizational relationships, information sharing and integration of SC stakeholders are the major inhibitors of resilience. Thus, the organization needs to overcome these identified obstacles to enhance their SC resilience level.Practical implicationsPresent study offers a novel focus of research on SC resilience measurement that is significant for understanding the level of immunity enterprises possess to unanticipated SC interruptions, and the ability to bounce back after an unforeseen event.Originality/valueThis paper proposes an integrated Delphi – fuzzy logic framework for measuring SC resilience. In doing so, the study identifies key potential inhibitors of SC resilience of the case company under study.

PurposeThis systematic literature review analyzes the academic literature to understand SC risk and resilience across different organizational sizes and industries. The academic literature has well discussed the causes of supply chain (SC) risk events, the impact of SC disruptions, and associated plans for SC resilience. However, the literature remains fragmented on the role of two fundamental elements in achieving SC resilience: the firm's size and the firm's industry as firms' contingent factors. Therefore, it is important to investigate and highlight SC resilience differences by size and industry type to establish more resilient firms.Design/methodology/approachBuilding upon the contingent resource-based view of the firm, the authors posit that organizational factors such as size and industry sector have important roles in developing organizational resilience capabilities. This systematic literature review and analysis is based on the structural and systematic analysis of high-ranked peer-reviewed journal papers from January 2000 to June 2021 collected through three global scientific databases (i.e. ProQuest, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar) using relevant keywords.FindingsThis systematic literature review of 230 high-quality articles shows that SC risk events can be categorized into demand, supply, organizational, operational, environmental, and network/control risk events. This study suggests that the SC resilience plans developed by startups, small and mdium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and large organizations are not necessarily the same as those of large enterprises. While collaboration and networking and risk management are the most crucial resilience capabilities for all firms, applying lean and quality management principles and utilizing information technology are more crucial for SMEs. For large firms, knowledge management and contingency planning are more important.Originality/valueThis study provides a comprehensive review of the literature on SC resilience plans across different organizational sizes and industries, offering new insights into the nature and dynamics of startups', SMEs', and large enterprises' SC resilience in different industries. The study highlights the need for further investigation of SC risk and resilience for startups, SMEs, and different industries on a more detailed level using empirical data. This study’s findings have important implications for researchers and practitioners and guide the development of effective SC resilience strategies for different types of firms.

PurposeThis study aims to analyse whether the presence of supply chain complexity (SCC) influences firms to improve their supply chain (SC) resilience and SC robustness capability. This study also examines an important paradox: whether investing in both exploitation and exploration practices is conflicting or complementary to enabling SC resilience and robustness in the presence of SCC.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used a survey-based approach to collect 242 useful responses from SC professionals of Pakistani firms, an important emerging economy context. The data were analysed with covariance-based structural equation modelling to statistically validate the model.FindingsThe analysis reveals several key findings: the presence of SCC has a direct, positive influence on SC resilience and SC robustness; while exploitation practices only partially mediate the nexus between SCC and SC resilience, they fully mediate the relationship between SCC and SC robustness; while exploration practices partially mediate the nexus between SCC and SC resilience, they do not mediate the relationship between SCC and SC robustness and SCC has a significant influence on SC resilience and SC robustness sequentially through exploitation and exploration (i.e. one after the other).Practical implicationsThese findings help to reconcile the exploitation versus exploration paradox in cultivating SC resilience and SC robustness in the presence of SCC. The findings assist SC managers in determining how to deploy their limited resources most effectively to enhance SC resilience and SC robustness while facing SCC.Originality/valueThe authors devise and empirically validate a unique framework that demonstrates how the presence of SCC works as a stimulus to build SC resilience and SC robustness.

Building responsive and resilient supply chains: Lessons from the <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 disruption

Supply chain resilience (SCRES) refers to the ability of a supply chain (SC) to both resist disruptions and recover its operational capability after disruptions. This paper presents a simulation model that includes network structural properties in the analysis of SCRES. This simulation model extends an existing graph model to consider operational behaviours in order to capture disruption-recovery dynamics. Through structural analysis of a supply chain network (SCN), mitigation strategies are designed to build redundancy, while contingency strategies are developed to prioritise recovery of the affected SCN. SCRES indexes are proposed by sampling SC performance measures of disruption for each plant and aggregating the measures based on the criticality of the plants in the SCN. The applicability of this simulation model is demonstrated in a real-world case study of different disruption scenarios. The application of mitigation and contingency strategies is shown to both improve recovery and reduce the total costs associated with disruptions. Through such simulation-based analysis, firms can gain insight into the SCRES of their existing SCNs and identify suitable strategies to improve SCRES by considering recovery time and costs.

Comparisons of interactive fuzzy programming approaches for closed-loop supply chain network design under uncertainty

In the supply chain, production and logistics facilities are positioned between the customer and supply markets. As a consequence, any changes in these markets should cause the enterprise to re-evaluate its location and the capacity of its activities at that particular location in the logistics network, which also means re-evaluating the parameters of input-output matrices for the entire supply chain. Different analytical approaches have been developed to describe the influence of production on the hierarchical spatial pattern. Our article presents a fuzzy set approach to the model of spatial hierarchy as a result of spatial interactions. We attempt to present the difference between net present value estimated by a fuzzy approach on the one hand and report on an analytical approach to the problem on the other.

A novel fuzzy group decision-making approach based on CCSD method for thermal insulation board selection problem: A case study

An integrated material-financial risk-averse resilient supply chain model with a real-world application

Building resilience or maintaining robustness: Insights from relational view and information processing perspective

Trainable Monte Carlo-MLP for cost uncertainty in resilient supply chain optimization with additive manufacturing implementation challenges

Waste management can be considered as a strategic issue for any government, which could include waste collection, separation, transfer, disposal, and recycling. Having a proper disposal and recycling supply chain is useful to prevent contamination of the environment to a large extent. The implementation of this system seems far from reality, regardless of considering the uncertainty. For this purpose, the fuzzy programming approach has been used. In this paper, a sustainable municipal solid waste disposal system has been designed and developed by a mixed-integer linear programming model to optimize the number and locations of construction sites for recycling centers. This system, in addition to taking the costs into account, includes optimizing the number of manpower, as well as the amount of pollutant. These aspects have been considered in order to have a system as close as possible to reality.

Supplier selection is one of the key activities of purchase management in supply chain. Supplier selection is a multifaceted problem relating qualitative and quantitative multi-criteria. This paper deals with a supplier selection problem in an Indian automobile company. The work presents selection of headlamp supplier using integrated fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making approaches: analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). The selection process starts with identifying the criteria based on literature review and interviewing industry experts. Weights to criteria are assigned using AHP, and suppliers are ranked using AHP and TOPSIS. Consistency tests are carried out to check the quality of expert's inputs. Also, sensitivity analysis is done to check the robustness of the approach. The results address that fuzzy approaches could be effective and more accurate than the existing approaches for supplier selection problems.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate current trends in sustainability and resilience in supply chains post the COVID-19 pandemic. With an increase in the number of pandemic-led supply chain disruptions in the past years, supply chain resilience has become a necessity in almost all global supply chains. At the same time, supply chains are being mandated to meet the sustainable development goals by considering all three pillars of sustainability, that is, people, planet and profits. The challenge faced by most supply chains is to incorporate both sustainability and resilience in their supply chains since the two have some conflicting objectives. The review investigated research on the integration of sustainability and resilience in closed-loop supply chains (CLSCs). CLSCs have become an important circular business model that contributes greatly to environmental sustainability. The disruption of CLSCs affects not only business as usual (forward chain) but also environmental and net zero initiatives. For this reason, it is necessary to study their resilience. Design/methodology/approach When conducting the review, the systematic method was used. In the systematic method, a research question was defined and studies on the topic were located and screened based on their contents. At the end of the screening, 56 publications were found to be relevant to the topic at hand. A content analysis was carried on the selected publications to come up with research gaps, recommendations and managerial implications for the integration of sustainability and resilience in CLSCs. The review investigated the levels of decision-making where resilience and sustainability can be integrated in CLSCs, the interrelationships between sustainability and resilience from the perspective of CLSCs and other supply chain issues that can be integrated with resilience and sustainability in CLSCs. Findings For CLSCs, the integration of sustainability and resilience was carried out mostly in the strategic level (mostly network design focusing on facility location and allocation). Most studies investigated the two principles separately, although there is a growing increase in literature investigating both principles simultaneously. In CLSCs, resilience has been investigated as a tool for achieving sustainability, as most research focused on the impact of resilience on sustainability dimensions. In addition, sustainability and resilience cannot co-exist without some trade-offs. It was also discovered that sustainability and resilience can be combined with other principles such as robustness, responsiveness, efficiency and reliability among other principles to improve supply chain networks. Originality/value The paper focused on simultaneous consideration of resilience and sustainability in CLSCs specifically. It also explored other supply chain issues associated with sustainability and resilience in CLSCs. The aim of the paper was to reveal interrelationships between resilience and sustainability in closed-loop supply chains. It has not been clear as to the relationship between resilience and sustainability from a CLSC perspective.

Over the years, supplier selection was a critical strategic decision in the organization. Due to several circumstances and factors, this decision should meet many criteria. In this context, this paper presents a systematic literature review on sustainable and resilient supplier selection. The purpose is to identify key elements supporting the evaluation of suppliers based on sustainable, circular and resilient criteria. Seventy articles were collected and analyzed in different dimensions such as criteria, methods, validation and case studies. The findings highlight an increasing focus on supplier selection problem in the last three years. In addition, the results revealed that sustainable criteria are the most appearing. The combination of multiple methods in an uncertain environment is most employed by authors. Moreover, an important number of models are validated in a real-world case study. The presented outcomes can accompany academics and managers to develop a selection and evaluation supplier model ensuring sustainability, circularity and resilience in supply chain. Future researches could focus on analyzing intensively the studied dimensions.