Managing Supply Chain Disruptions Research Articles

The role of supply chain risk mitigation strategies to manage supply chain disruptions

The role of supply chain risk mitigation strategies to manage supply chain disruptions

Supply chain resilience: When the recipe is more important than the ingredients for managing supply chain disruptions

Over the past two decades, considerable research has focused on enhancing supply chains' capacity to cope with disruptions. Consequently, the concept of supply chain resilience (SCRE) has emerged, with the prevailing view that building resilience into the supply chain effectively manages disruptive events. However, given the concept's nascent state, little is understood about the processes through which a supply chain becomes resilient. This study employs fuzzy qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore the configurations of managerial and organizational capabilities that contribute to improving the resilience of supply chains against both high- and low-impact disruptions. It identifies four key “recipes” that combine different resilience antecedents to enhance supply chain resilience. The findings illustrate how various combinations of organizational and managerial antecedents of SCRE, as suggested by the dynamic capabilities theory and its extension, the dynamic managerial capabilities theory, operate to build supply chain resilience. Additionally, the study demonstrates that principles of complexity theory—namely, asymmetric relationships, equifinality, and causal complexity—are integral to developing SCRE.

Enhancing supply chain resilience: A machine learning approach for predicting product availability dates under disruption

The COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing political and regional conflicts have a highly detrimental impact on the global supply chain and cause significant delays in logistics operations and international shipments. One of the most pressing concerns is the uncertainty surrounding the availability dates of products, which is critical information for companies to generate effective logistics and shipment plans. Therefore, accurately predicting availability dates plays a pivotal role in executing successful logistics operations, ultimately minimizing total transportation and inventory costs. We investigate the prediction of product availability dates for General Electric (GE) Gas Power’s inbound shipments for gas and steam turbine service and manufacturing operations, utilizing both numerical and categorical features. We evaluate several regression models, including Simple Regression, Lasso Regression, Ridge Regression, Elastic Net, Random Forest (RF), Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM), and Neural Network models. Based on real-world data, our experiments demonstrate that the tree-based algorithms (i.e., RF and GBM) provide the best generalization error and outperforms all other regression models tested. We anticipate that our prediction models will assist companies in managing supply chain disruptions and reducing supply chain risks on a broader scale.

Covid-19 and the South African pharmaceutical supply chain

This research aimed to identify the key drivers of the pharmaceutical supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic disruption, focusing on the South African pharmaceutical industry. The study aimed to unveil the dynamic strategies and challenges experienced during the pandemic and suggest recommendations for resilient supply chain operations. The study drew on established supply chain management theories and integrated them with the unique and novel circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. It mainly referred to theories regarding pricing, strategic sourcing, ICT usage, product availability, and logistics management contextualised within the pharmaceutical industry. An exploratory research approach was adopted to uncover the five overarching themes that function as pharmaceutical supply chain drivers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Semi-structured interviews were used to acquire the primary data with industry supply chain professionals, supplemented with secondary data from industry reports and relevant literature. The findings revealed that the pricing of medications, strategic sourcing decisions, information and communication technology, the availability of pharmaceutical products, and logistics management played critical roles in the pharmaceutical industry's supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic. Disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led to challenges such as price hikes, supply shortages, and logistical complications. The study provides crucial insights into managing supply chain disruptions amid a global health crisis. Implementing dynamic pricing mechanisms, developing resilient sourcing strategies, using ICT effectively, improving inventory management, and enhancing logistics management are recommended for robust supply chain operations. The findings contribute to academia by enriching the existing body of knowledge and offering practical solutions for industry supply chain professionals. The research is original and timely, offering a unique perspective on the South African pharmaceutical industry's supply chain during an unprecedented global health crisis. The results are valuable for academia and industry, shedding light on the adaptive strategies, challenges encountered, and lessons learned from navigating the pharmaceutical supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Identifying disruptions by COVID-19 and devising strategies to build robust supply chain – a case study illustration of India's energy storage sector

PurposeThe outset of the COVID-19 pandemic caused disruptions of all forms in the supply chain globally for almost two and a half years. This study identifies various challenges in the effective functioning of the existing supply chain during COVID-19. The focus is to see the disruptions impacting the energy storage supply chains.Design/methodology/approachThe procedure entails a thorough analysis of scholarly literature pertaining to various supply chain interruptions, confirmed and verified by experts working in an energy storage company in India. These experts also confirmed the occurrence of more disruptive factors during their interviews and questionnaire survey. Moreover, this process attempts to filter out the relevant causal disruption factors in an energy storage company by using the integrated approach of qualitative and quantitative methodologies.FindingsThe results provide practical insights for the company management in planning and devising new strategies to manage supply chain disruptions. Supply chains for companies in other industry sectors can also benefit from the proposed framework and results in making them more robust to counter future disastrous events.Originality/valueThe study provides an easily adaptable decision framework to different industries by closely examining supply chain disruptions and identifying associated causes for building a robust supply chain focused on the energy storage sector. It examines four disruption dimensions and investigates possible outcomes and impacts of disruptions.

Examining supply chain vulnerability via an analysis of ESG-Prioritized firms amid the Russian-Ukrainian conflict

This research study explores the impact of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict on ESG-enabled global supply chains, resulting in disruption to worldwide industries. The conflict has caused product shortages, food scarcity, and significantly impacted the global economy. From the extant literature, there is a lack of understanding about the effect of the conflict on different industries from a supply chain perspective, as well as the ESG-prioritized companies. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the influence of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on the performance of companies with respect to different regions and industries of their upstream and downstream customers. The top-100 companies in the S&P 500 index which are actively participating in the ESG development are selected and grouped according to customer regions and industries, and the event study analysis is applied to evaluate abnormal returns from stock prices due to the disruption events. Through the empirical analysis, no matter how the ESG-prioritized companies are grouped according to their supply chain structures, it is found that the occurrence of companies obtaining the abnormally high stock return is higher than the occurrence of the opposite. Moreover, the active involvement in ESG disclosure and environmental management demonstrates significant results to withstand disruptions to their supply chains. The findings in this study contribute to a growing body of ESG-related business research, implying that companies which prioritize ESG policies may be better equipped to manage supply chain disruptions during crises.

The discourse of organizational resilience before and after the global pandemic.

Background: Over the past decade, there has been a surge in public and academic discussions about organizational resilience, particularly in the wake of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. It is essential to understand the changes in the discourse of organizational resilience before and after the pandemic. This study aims to understand how the concept of organizational resilience evolved before and after the pandemic. Methods: This study is qualitative in nature, employing discourse analysis techniques on scholarly documents on organizational resilience. Our analysis considers the global context of organizational resilience discussions and highlights the most frequently discussed industries, such as tourism and hospitality, manufacturing, and healthcare. The documents were searched on Scopus academic databases with the key search term of organizational AND resilience. Results: Our findings indicate that themes related to "response to external threats" and "supply chain vulnerabilities and disruptions" have gained significant attention post-pandemic. Meanwhile, discussions around "preparedness and organizational reliability" and "coping with occupational and job demands" have remained consistent before and after the pandemic. Conclusions: This study contributes to the academic understanding and practical application of organizational resilience evolution by discourse before and after the pandemic. It highlights the significance of being prepared for external threats and managing supply chain disruptions while recognizing the importance of preparedness and organizational reliability.

Digitalization for supply chain resilience and robustness: The roles of collaboration and formal contracts

Black swan events such as the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak cause substantial supply chain disruption risks to modern companies. In today’s turbulent and complex business environment, supply chain resilience and robustness as two critical capabilities for firms to cope with disruptions have won substantial attention from both the academia and industry. Accordingly, this study intends to explore how digitalization helps build supply chain resilience and robustness. Adopting organizational information processing theory, it proposes the mediating effect of supply chain collaboration and the moderating effect of formal contracts. Using survey data of Chinese manufacturing firms, the study applied structural equation modelling to test the research model. Results show that digitalization has a direct effect on supply chain resilience, and supply chain collaboration can directly facilitate both resilience and robustness. Our study also indicates a complementary mediating effect of supply chain collaboration on the relationship between digitalization and supply chain resilience and an indirect-only mediation effect on the relationship between digitalization and supply chain robustness. Findings reveal the differential roles of digitalization as a technical factor and supply chain collaboration as an organizational factor in managing supply chain disruptions. Paradoxically, formal contracts enhance the relationship between digitalization and supply chain resilience but weaken the relationship between supply chain collaboration and supply chain resilience. The validation of moderating effects determines the boundary conditions of digitalization and supply chain collaboration and provides insights into governing supply chain partners’ behavior. Overall, this study enhances the understanding on how to build a resilient and robust supply chain.

Employee associations with R&D investment, firm performance, disruption risk, and supply chain performance during the COVID-19 pandemic: A multiple mediational model

Purpose: To timely manage supply chain disruptions, experts have focused their attention on the impact of COVID-19 on industries worldwide. Epidemic outbursts are a specific supply chain risk with long disruption propagation, disruption persistence, and high uncertainty. This study aimed to investigate the role of R&D investment and firm performance in mediating the relationship between disruption risk and supply chain performance in Pakistani manufacturing industries and supply chain employees during the recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic via the application of the dynamic capability theory.Methodology: From 21 July 2020 to 23 August 2020, 318 employees from supply chains of manufacturing industries in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan, participated in this cross-sectional online web-based survey. The four standard research scales were used to examine the research and development, disruption risk, firm, and supply chain performance. The response link was distributed to respondents via Facebook, WhatsApp, and email. The study analyzed the data using structural equation modeling and a partial least squares technique.Results: The study’s findings suggest that disruption risk, research and development investment, and firm performance all improve supply chain performance, but the mediation effect is unsupported by the data. These measures help plan a better supply chain in the face of disruption risk. They provide one of the timely empirical conclusions on the role of R&D investment in mitigating risk disruptions and improving supply chain performance.

Data-Driven Supply Chain Operations-The Pilot Case of Postal Logistics and the Cross-Border Optimization Potential.

According to the defined challenge of cross-border delivery, a pilot experiment based on the integration of new digital technologies to assess process optimization potential in the postal sector was designed. The specifics were investigated with events processing based on digital representation. Different events were simulated with scenario analysis with the integration of the Cognitive Advisor and supported by the monitoring of KPIs. The business environment is forcing logistics companies to optimize their delivery processes, integrate new technologies, improve their performance metrics, and move towards Logistics 4.0. Their main goals are to simultaneously reduce costs, environmental impact, delivery times, and route length, as well as to increase customer satisfaction. This pilot experiment demonstrates the integration of new digital technologies for process optimization in real time to manage intraday changes. Postal operators can increase flexibility, introduce new services, improve utilization by up to 50%, and reduce costs and route length by 12.21%. The Cognitive Advisor has shown great potential for the future of logistics by enabling a dynamic approach to managing supply chain disruptions using sophisticated data analytics for process optimization based on the existing delivery infrastructure and improving business processes. Research originality is identified with a novel approach of real-time simulation based on the integration of the Cognitive Advisor in postal delivery.

Managing Supply Chain Disruptions in Nigerian Seaport Companies

In Nigeria, seaport companies have lost significant revenue since 2000 because of supply chain disruptions. If not mitigated, supply chain disruptions at Nigerian seaports will significantly affect organizational output and profitability. The purpose of this research was to explore strategies some seaport business leaders use to mitigate supply chain disruptions in Lagos, Nigeria. Supply chain management theory was the conceptual framework for this single case study. Data were collected using semistructured interviews with 4 participants from a Nigerian seaport company that adopted successful strategies to mitigate supply chain disruptions and review of company documents for methodological triangulation. Using thematic analysis, the 5 primary themes were corruption, seaport congestion, bureaucratic bottleneck, equipment failures, and employee disputes.

The importance of resource interaction in strategies for managing supply chain disruptions

The turbulent business environment highlights the need for strategies for mitigating, responding to, and recovering from (that is, managing) supply chain disruptions. Resources are central in these strategies but remain unspecified in the literature. This paper shows how the resource interaction approach (RIA) can help understanding resources in this setting by acknowledging their interactive and networked nature. Based on a conceptual discussion that compares key assumptions within the supply chain risk management (SCRM) and supply chain risk resilience (SCRes) literatures with the RIA, we propose an alternative approach to strategies for managing supply chain disruptions. We challenge the SCRM and SCRes literatures by emphasizing interdependence (as opposed to independence) and pointing to relationships as key resources in strategies for managing supply chain disruptions. Collaboration relying on an interplay between temporary and permanent organizing is suggested as a starting point instead of being just one of several alternative strategies.

Practising circular economy performance in Malaysia: managing supply chain disruption and technological innovation capability under industry 4.0

ABSTRACT In response to environmental awareness and financial return, manufacturing firms are increasingly concerned about practicing circular economy performance (CEP). The lack of comprehensive evidence on the integrated technology capability in IR4.0 driven based supply chain management literature has motivated this study to investigate how the company manages the disruption of Industry 4.0 technology and its impact on CEP. Data were obtained from 130 Malaysian manufacturing companies. Data were analyzed using structural equation modelling using PLS-SEM. The results showed CEP's positive and significant effect on managing supply chain disruption and technological innovation capability (TIC). Positive relationships prove that CEP has a considerable influence on the manufacturing industry. The mediating results found that the TIC has played a complimentary mediation effect to support the nexus of managing supply chain disruption, supply chain disruption recovery and CEP. Supply chain managers are encouraged to control interference problems and improve effective communication and teamwork.

Identifying the Contractor’s core competencies in post-COVID-19 scenario: developing a survey instrument

PurposeConstruction industry is one of the worst affected sectors due to the impact of the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify the key competencies that should be demonstrated by the contractors in the post-COVID-19 scenario to make them resilient to the adverse impact of pandemic outbreaks.Design/methodology/approachA survey instrument was developed using an extensive literature review and was tested using a pilot study. It was then administered online using survey monkey to 900 respondents, out of which 324 complete responses were obtained. The data analysis was performed using exploratory factor analysis and second-order confirmatory factor analysis.FindingsAfter analyzing the data, it was identified that the most critical competence was managing site safety (standard factor loading (SFL) = 0.91), followed by leadership skills (SFL = 0.88), technical competence (SFL = 0.81), managing supply chain disruption (SFL = 0.73) and financial stability (SFL = 0.48) that were found to be less essential from the respondents’ point of view.Originality/valueThe study is first of its kind to identify the core competencies that should be demonstrated by the contractors to cope with COVID-19-induced disruptions. The findings of this article can be used by the practitioners to develop policies and procedures for selection of contractors.

Behavior evolution of supply chain networks under disruption risk — From aspects of time dynamic and spatial feature

Supply chain disruptions are inevitable and may bring about fatal influence to the system. In this article, we examine how up and downstream firms embedded in a supply chain network engage in decision-making under disruption risk. The decision evolution of the supply chain network, treated as a complex adaptive system (CAS), is investigated from both the aspects of time dynamic and spatial feature by employing the Evolutionary Game Theory (EGT) and Cellular Automata (CA) approach, respectively. Supply chain network agents (i.e., up and downstream firms) are supposed to have two optional responses, positive strategy or negative strategy when facing the disruption risk. By observing a series of simulation experiments on the developed EGT model and CA model, we offer some testable propositions regarding the behavioral nature of the agents in the supply chain network. Some managerial insights in managing supply chain disruption risk are presented as well. We find that the spatial feature of the supply chain network plays a vital role in the evolution process which can lead the system to a more satisfactory equilibrium, compared with the evolution process only considering the time dynamic.

Managing supply chain disruption threat via a strategy combining pricing and self-protection

In the past decade, supply chain disruptions continue to impact firms in different ways. To reduce such negative impacts, firms may take proactive actions to lower the probability of disruption. In this research, we study how firms can mitigate supply chain disruption threat by optimizing pricing decisions and launching proactive actions in the form of effort investment jointly. Pricing involves profit-seeking, while effort investment aims to hedge risks in advance and guarantee profits gain indirectly. We develop a series of models to study the interplay between pricing and effort investment, and the effect of the decision-making sequence, from the perspective of both the entire supply chain and individual parties. In the effort-price scenario, we find that both the supplier and the retailer invest in effort, and the supply chain is better off in the simultaneous effort investment game than in the sequential effort investment game. In the sequential effort investment game, the party that first invests effort is better off than in the simultaneous effort investment game. In the price-effort scenario, we find that only the retailer invests effort, and the supply chain's profit under single-effort investment is greater than under joint-effort investment when the sensitivity of the probability of operational failure to the retailer's effort is large enough. Finally, we extend our model to the scenarios of credit sales, partial damage and multiple retailers, and optimize the decisions accordingly.

The PPE industry in Italy during COVID-19: supply chain disruption and the adoption of digital and social media in B2B firms

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze how the personal protective equipment (PPE) industry managed supply chain and business relationships disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the adoption of digital and social media during the period of crisis management.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology used is qualitative based on 14 interviews with 11 PPE firms operating in Italy, the first Western country that implemented a national lockdown during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.FindingsFindings suggest that although most PPE companies in Italy have been slow in implementing digital transformation, digital technologies and communication enhanced existing assets and capabilities creating new customer value during the COVID-19 outbreak. The pandemic has increased the relevance of social media as an effective tool in the business-to-business (B2B) context to provide updated information and training, as well as to reinforce and personalize business relationships, weakened by the lack of physical contacts during the lockdown. Moreover, highly interdependent buyer–supplier relations can increase supply chain resilience to disruptions in mutually dependent relationships/partnerships.Research limitations/implicationsBy analyzing the main issues encountered during the pandemic and the digital strategies adopted by PPE companies, this study seeks to extend B2B literature on supply chain disruption management and digitalization. The limitations refer to the study’s generalizability as a limited number of firms are analyzed.Practical implicationsImplications for B2B companies and policymakers are provided with the extent of managing supply chain disruptions during emergency situations such as COVID-19 pandemic, when collaboration between different actors involved become essential.Originality/valueNo previous studies have analyzed how PPE firms used digital and social media in managing disruption in supply chain and business relationships. Therefore, the present study contributes to extend the B2B literature by analyzing the related effects during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tracer Pharmaceuticals Availability and Distribution Trends Prior to and During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Comparative Study.

BackgroundCoronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has had an unprecedented impact on the health products delivery system. To maintain routine health services, tracer pharmaceuticals (TPs) should always be available and accessible in healthcare institutions. Thus, this study aimed to explore the influence of the Covid-19 on TPs availability and distribution trends in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic in Ethiopia.MethodsAn institution-based comparative study was undertaken on 25 TPs in the pharmaceutical supply agency. From the agency’s logistical data, we collated the amount of TPs ordered, received, and distributed, as well as the stock status, by using an observation checklist. The collated data were recorded in Microsoft Excel and transferred to SPSS for analysis. A frequency and percentage analysis were performed to evaluate the fill rate, product availability, and stock-out duration. A dependent t-test was used to compare if there was a significant mean difference in TPs distribution before and after the Covid-19 at a p-value less than 5%.ResultsBefore Covid-19, 18 (72%) of the TPs were refilled above 80% of amount ordered. After the pandemic, however, the fill rate dropped to 48%. The availability of TPs during the Covid-19 was 60%. During the six months of Covid-19, the average stock-out duration for all TPs was 34.68 days, with Cimetidine 200mg/mL injectable (line-item fill rate = 0, days out of stock = 180 days) being the most stocked-out item. Tracer pharmaceuticals distribution before Covid-19 (M = 81,317, SD = 139,274) were significantly different after the pandemic (M = 60,212, SD = 94,966) at the 5% significance level (t (24) = 2.289, p = 0.031).ConclusionThis survey reveals how Covid-19 has influenced service providers’ logistics systems. Following the pandemic, the line fill rate fell below half with a three-fifths availability of products. To effectively manage supply chain disruptions experienced in Covid-19 and beyond, the agency in collaboration with stakeholders should make an effort to enhance end-to-end inventory visibility, establish a resilient logistics system, strengthen domestic manufacturers’ capabilities, and develop contingency plans with supplying partners.

Officiating Supply Chain Uncertainties due to COVID-19 Disruptions: Evidences Using Contingency Approach

This paper examines how firms achieve strategic fit with the external environment disrupted by the Covid 19 pandemic. The strategy formulation phase is studied concerning the firm’s size for short-term and long-term time horizons. The context of this study is Covid 19 disruptions and how firms from the Construction industry manage supply chain uncertainties. The qualitative interview technique is used to collect data from 13 contracting firms operating in the construction industry of the United Arab Emirates. The contingency theory approach is used to analyze the strategy formulation of firms during Covid 19 pandemic. Results indicate that while developing strategies to manage supply chain disruptions, medium-size firms tend to be more secure and safe. At the same time, large organizations can deploy their resources to reduce risks caused by supply chain uncertainties. However, for a more extended time, medium-size firms adopt a wait-and-see strategy compared to large firms’ Reactive or Proactive strategies. The use of contingency theory elaborated how construction firms achieve strategic fit to cope with Covid 19 disruptions. Organizations with more resources can opt for more reactive strategies, while most firms wait before taking any particular actions. The disruptions caused by Covid 19 are the first time phenomenon and thus require more detailed knowledge to proactively deals with it. Furthermore, an empirical model to reduce risks caused by Covid 19 disruptions is provided in the end.

Strategic Alliance for Resilience in Supply Chain: A Bibliometric Analysis

Resilience is a particularly important quality for supply chains in this turbulent environment. Resilience in the supply chain is the ability to retain, resume, and recover operations after an intense destructive incident. One of the strategic solutions for managing supply chain disruptions is to establish collaboration and strategic alliances in order to achieve competitive advantage. Therefore, given the increasing publication of articles in areas of strategic alliances and supply chain resilience, it is a good opportunity to review these articles, identify gaps in the current literature, demonstrate links between the two areas, and provide suggestions for future research. For these purposes, a bibliometric analysis has been performed on literature available on the Web of Science database. The distribution of articles based on year and country, influential journals, research areas, authors, affiliations, keywords, citations, and reference co-citation analysis are discussed. Results indicate that studies about strategic alliances, meant to increase resilience, are growing in areas such as “Management”, “Operations research”, “Management science”, and “Business”. Furthermore, the sources could be categorized into five clusters; namely “From knowledge concept to value creation”, “Internal and external relationships”, “Logistics and supply chain performance”, “Intellectual capital and strategic management”, and “Critical success factors and alliances”. This article can be useful for both practitioners and academics who explore the topic of strategic alliances and resilience in the supply chain, and also offers managers the opportunity to overcome supply chain disruptions and negative consequences of risks by becoming familiar with the key concepts of resilience. The persistence of businesses and supply chains is guaranteed through communicating with partners and even competitors in the light of alliance according to the findings of this research. Managers can pay attention to the integration of the supply chain to improve resilience and increase collaboration between suppliers and customers. Given the research results, strategic alliances can be noted in expanding organizational entrepreneurship and shaping strategic collaboration networks in light of strategic alliances.