Supply chain multi-state risk assessment using universal generating function

Abstract

This paper proposes a new approach to assess the supply risk beyond the classical binary assumption of either delivering the whole quantity or not. Given today’s stochastic nature of supply and the dynamic nature of demand, the different supply activities along with the chain exhibit a multi-state behaviour increasing the complexity of their risk assessment. The new approach utilizes the universal generating function (UGF) to model the different suppliers’ echelons with their various supply risk levels along all the stages of the supply chain as a multi-state risk system. The developed model was successfully implemented to assess the supply risk in a multi-state strawberry supply chain and outperformed classical approaches. Results from the case study and the validation analysis illustrated the ability of the new approach to capture the various supply levels with their associated risks leading to more informative risk assessment process. Furthermore, the developed model improved the visibility for the purchasing managers downstream in terms of the different trade-offs between supply levels and their risks as well as some financial thresholds. The new multi-state approach contributes to the emerging supply chain risk assessment trend by offering a more realistic modelling method to capture the risk of all available supply levels along the delivery chain.