Latest posts

Can you outsource risk?

This article, at the China Sourcing Blog, points at what is probably the weakest link in global supply chains: the fact that the more you outsource, the less control you have over your supply chain. In essence, by outsourcing, you give someone else control over your supply chain.

Posted in THIS and THAT


Book review: Supply Chain Risk Management

Edited by Robert B. Handfield, Supply Chain Risk Management: Minimizing Disruptions in Global Sourcing (Resource Management), is not what I thought it would be. Looking at the cover I expected a richly and colorfully illustrated handbook. It is not.

Posted in BOOKS and BOOK CHAPTERS


Building a secure and resilient supply chain

Are you gambling with your supply network? You should be aware that the supply network is inherently vulnerable to disruption and the failure of any one element in it could cause the whole network to fail. Actions to improve security can be classified into three categories: Physical security, Information security, Freight security. Actions to improve resilience can be be divided into: Flexibility, Redundancy.

Posted in ARTICLES and PAPERS


Piracy at sea – is your supply chain at risk?

You may not consider it the foremost supply chain risk, but piracy can endanger civilians, can disrupt the economy, can encourage corruption, and could trigger an environmental disaster.

Posted in THIS and THAT


Supply Chain Risk Management 2008

Supply Chain Risk Management 2008, 3rd & 4th November 2008, World Trade Centre, the Netherlands, is an event that you as a Vice President, Director, Head of, Managing Director or Manager of Risk, Supply Chain, Supply Management, Logistics, Distribution, Operations should not miss.

Posted in THIS and THAT


Defining and Measuring Economic Resilience

In contrast to the pre-event character of mitigation, economic resilience emphasizes ingenuity and resourcefulness applied during and after the event. It focuses on the fact that individuals and organizations do not simply react passively or in a “business as usual manner” in the face of a disaster.

Posted in THIS and THAT


The art of reviewing journal submissions

It’s always interesting to look at the submission in question and ask myself why was I picked as a referee. Sometimes it is because the article topic is linked to my own research, or maybe because some of my work is listed in the bibliography or references

Posted in THIS and THAT


Should you join the Supply Chain Network SCN?

From a quick browse before making this post I realized there are quite a number of highly qualified and merited members, which most certainly will help me keep up to date the latest in Supply Chain Management.

Posted in THIS and THAT


Robustness, flexibility and resilience

In a previous post I discussed the issue of Flexibility and robustness to reduce risk and uncertainty. Since then a new term has emerged: resilience, and today I will take a look at that.

Posted in THIS and THAT


Risk Central

Risk Central is a private and personal initiative and web portal started by Roberto Pinto, assistant professor and Ph.D student at the University of Bergamo, covering topics like Risk Management, Business Continuity Management, Vulnerability Management, Resilient Enterprise.

Posted in BLOGS and WEBSITES


Why risk is the buzzword in supply chain management

What is supply chain risk? Today I will take a closer look at the chapter titled “Managing risk in the supply chain” in Logistics & Supply Chain Management by Christopher Martin.

Posted in THIS and THAT


Book Review: Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Responsiveness, reliability and relationships are the basis for successful logistics and supply chain management. Strategies like Just-In-Time (JIT), Lean and Agile thinking are reviewed, and last not least, there is a chapter on supply chain risk.

Posted in BOOKS and BOOK CHAPTERS


Supply chains compete, not companies

Martin Christopher’s particular research interests lie at the interface between marketing and logistics reflecting his belief that these two critical activities underpin superior supply chain performance.

Posted in THIS and THAT


Three steps to make your supply chain less vulnerable

To make the supply chain more resilient, businesses need to do more than just think about the problem; they must prepare to act effectively, and find the optimal tradeoff between disruption costs and mitigation costs.

Posted in THIS and THAT


Will Climate Change have an impact on transportation?

Transportation professionals should look into the challenges posed by climate change and incorporate current scientific knowledge into the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of transportation systems.

Posted in REPORTS and WHITEPAPERS


Book Review: Strategies and Tactics in Supply Chain Event Management

Operations Management and Logistics have been around for a while, but Supply Chain Management is a relatively new field, and it’s still struggling to come up with a uniform language or a uniform perspectiveLaden with case studies this book thoroughly explains what possible problems that can arise in a supply chain and how to deal with them.

Posted in BOOKS and BOOK CHAPTERS


International Supply Chain Risk Management

The International Supply Chain Risk Management Network (ISCRIM) is a network of academics interested in how to handle different types of risks in the supply chain. The main purpose of the ISCRIM-network is to speed up, and improve, the research within “Supply Chain Risk Management”.

Posted in THIS and THAT


Supply Chain Risk Management: A Neural Network Approach

Supply chain event management (abbreviated as SCEM) is a consideration of all possible occurring events and factors that can cause a disruption in a supply chain.

Posted in ARTICLES and PAPERS


Book Review: Supply Chain Risk

This book contains 11 chapters written by 11 different authors, each exploring 11 different supply chain contexts and thus 11 different views on supply chain risks and offering 11 different research frameworks, techniques and practices. The book fully shows that supply chain risk management is a wide field, and thus empirically challenging, with many concepts to be explored.

Posted in BOOKS and BOOK CHAPTERS


International Conference on Flexible Supply Chains in a Global Economy

Since this conference is held right at my doorstep I thought I should promote it, especially since my research topic Uncertainty and Disruption in the Supply Chain is one of the topics that is covered.

Posted in THIS and THAT


ARTICLES and PAPERS
Risk versus vulnerability
What is risk, and what is vulnerability? While connected, they are not the same, and perhaps, often [...]
How to secure your supply chain - 2/7
Continuing my previous post, which talked about raising the awareness towards disruption risks in ge[...]
BOOKS and BOOK CHAPTERS
Low Cost Country Sourcing
Low-cost countries. A dream for some and a nightmare for other others. What are typical supply chain[...]
Enterprise-wide Risk Management
Coming from a crisis management and business continuity background, I really enjoyed reading Enterpr[...]
REPORTS and WHITEPAPERS
Supply chain disruption risk on the rise
Global supply chains are increasingly becoming more vulnerable to potential disruption to trade, say[...]
Critical Infrastructure and Resilience
What happens when a business is disabled for a length of time? What are the impacts on its profitabi[...]