Tag Archives: locational disadvantage

Supply Chain Disruptions – Does Location Matter?

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Revised on: 2011-08-03

How are companies located in sparse transport networks affected by supply chain disruptions? Here is a copy of the paper I presented at TRB2009, the Transportation Research Board 88th Annual Meeting, in Washington, DC, 11-15 January 2009. The paper was presented in a poster session and included as a full paper in the conference proceedings.  For your convenience, both the paper and the poster are included below.

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Overcoming locational disadvantage

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Revised on: 2011-08-08

Following up my previous post, Sparse transportation networks – a recipe for supply chain disruptions?, when it comes to a business’ physical location in relation to the functioning of the supply chain, obviously there are good locations and bad locations. Can a business’ organization compensate for that? Yes – by either structuring its supply chain or honing its organization, thus going from badly located to well located and from badly prepared to well prepared.

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Sparse transportation networks and disruptions

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Revised on: 2011-08-03

The vulnerability of the transportation network as part of the supply chain is of particular interest in countries or regions with sparsely populated areas, and hence, a sparse transportation network. Typically traits of such regions are few transportation mode options and/or few transportation link options for each transportation mode, for example maybe only one railway line and two roads, no port, no airport. It should not come as a surprise then that the nature of sparse transportation networks, and thus sparse supply chains, makes them vulnerable to many different kinds of internal and external risks.

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Supply Chain Disruptions – Does location matter?

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Revised on: 2011-01-06

In regions or countries with sparse transportation networks or few transportation mode choices the structure or design of the supply chain, along with the organization and preparedness become important factors in determining if a company has an favorable or a unfavorable location. In locations with a sparse transportation network there are maybe not so many options as to setting up the supply chain; the supply chain is in fact constrained by a certain physical location. Does this make it more susceptible to disruptions?

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Location, location, location

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Revised on: 2011-02-25

Albeit many supply chains make use of more than one, if not all modes of transport, the vulnerability of the transportation network is of particular interest in countries or regions with sparsely populated areas, and hence, a sparse transportation network, often with only one mode of transportation available between population centers, meaning this centre can only be reached by either rail, sea, air or road. Having basically only one transportation link to the aforementioned population centers, it becomes extremely vulnerable to any disruption in the transportation system or supply chain, since in a possible worst-case scenario no suitable alternative exists.

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How to disrupt a supply chain

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Revised on: 2011-02-25

This is a brief description of a model I developed for supply chain risk and vulnerability, with risks and disruptions on one side and the vulnerability and impacts on the other side: A typical supply chain consists of a company with incoming raw materials from an upstream supplier and outgoing products to a downstream customer, and is characterized by its locational and organizational design. There are many potential disruptions to a supply chain that may or that may not influence locational decisions. And finally, the impact and severity of disruptions depends on both locational vulnerability and organizational adaptability

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