Towards process reference models for secure supply chains

Abstract

As supply chains become more complex and global in scope, they are increasingly at risk from attacks and disruptions. Given these circumstances and the intensifying risk and threat situation worldwide, supply chain security represents a highly relevant issue in practice. The typical supply chain crime includes theft, smuggling, counterfeiting, sabotage and terrorism. While there are many technological measures, security initiatives also call for procedural improvements that demand inter-organizational cooperation analogous to efficiency improvements. The SCOR Model represents the de-facto standard as a supply chain process reference model and serves as a coherent management tool for describing, analyzing and enhancing supply chain processes. Therefore, it might also serve well as a basis for the integration of security measures. Consequently, the overall objective of this paper is to critically assess to what extent the current SCOR model accounts for state-of-the-art supply chain security concepts and requirements, to reveal respective shortcomings, and to lay the foundations for a secure SCOR model by investigating the suitability for conceptual security extensions.