Blog Archives

Finding the right location – minimizing disruption costs

Classical facility location models assume that once optimally located and set up, facilities will operate as planned, smoothly, and without interruption. In reality, though, operations seldom go as planned; interruptions, unscheduled downtime and failures occur every once in a while, with unplanned and unbudgeted disruption costs as a consequence.

Posted in ARTICLES and PAPERS
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Supply Chain Disruptions – Does location matter?

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.

Posted in my PUBLIC PRESENCE
Tags: , , , , , ,

How to Design Mitigation Capabilities

The severity of supply chain disruptions stems from supply chain design characteristics and supply chain mitigation capabilities: Supply Chain Design: supply chain density,supply chain complexity, node criticality. Supply Chain Mitigation Capability: recovery capability, warning capability.

Posted in ARTICLES and PAPERS
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Supply chain vulnerability: an invisible global risk?

Supply chain disruption – a global issue? All companies and governments dependent on external suppliers are exposed to the risks of disruption in their supply chain. Even a relatively small supply chain disruption caused by a local risk event may ultimately have consequences across the global economic system.

Posted in REPORTS and WHITEPAPERS
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Supply Chain Risk – Business Continuity Management

Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) has many similarities with Business Continuity Management (BCM). That is why SCRM can and should draw upon BCM for advice. A well-handled supply chain disruption can mean business continuity, while an ill-handled supply chain disruption can mean business dis-continuity.

Posted in THIS and THAT
Tags: , , , ,

A lesson in supply chain disruption: German railways during WWII

Supply chain disruptions have occurred as frequently in the past as today, and particular within the military in war times. A supply chain serving a war machine is under extreme strain, but is an essential element in winning or losing not only a battle or two, but an entire war.

Posted in THIS and THAT
Tags: , , , ,

Location, location, location

How do companies or businesses located in such places adapt to the terms and conditions of their supply chain, how do they hedge against the risk of supply chain disruptions, how are they impacted if there is a disruption?

Posted in THIS and THAT
Tags: , , , ,

Sheffi’s disruption profile

This is tell-tale illustration of what happens when supply chains are disrupted and businesses are impacted. They may, or may not, be able to bounce back to where they were before the event. The survivability of the company depends solely on the company’s resilience towards the disruption.

Posted in THIS and THAT
Tags: , , ,

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
Tags: , , , , ,

Book Review: The Resilient Enterprise

Excellently written, The Resilient Enterprise: Overcoming Vulnerability for Competitive Advantage does not necessarily provide concrete solutions for your own business, but it showcases how other companies, successfully or not, handled various crisis situations.

Posted in BOOKS and BOOK CHAPTERS
Tags: , , , , , ,

How to disrupt a supply chain

A typical supply chain consists of a company with incoming raw materials from an upstream supplier and outgoing products to a downstream customer.
A supply chain is characterized by its locational and organizational design.
There are many potential disruptions to a supply chain.
The potential disruptions may or may not influence locational decisions.
The impact and severity of disruptions depends on both locational vulnerability and organizational adaptability.

Posted in THIS and THAT
Tags: , , , , ,

ARTICLES and PAPERS
Supply chain risk management - a literature review
Is it possible to summarize  seven years of supply chain risk management research and find a common [...]
Adaptation versus Transformation
Many businesses believe themselves to be nested in a stable environment and are confounded when thin[...]
BOOKS and BOOK CHAPTERS
Risk Management in Maritime Transportation Networks
This week’s focus are risks in the maritime supply chain, and today's article introduces a new metho[...]
Risk Management in Global Supply Chain Networks
Supply Chain Risks can be classified as either one of these three, Deviation, Disruption or Disaster[...]
REPORTS and WHITEPAPERS
Assess the vulnerability of your production system
So far I have reviewed "international" literature and web sites, and it is only fitting that now it [...]
Vulnerable or valuable supply chain?
More than a year old now, but still holding not so few words of wisdom is the Pricewaterhouse Cooper[...]
from HERE and THERE
Humanitarian and military supply chains side-by side
The recent earthquakes in Samoa in the Pacific and in Padang in Indonesia are a poignant reminder fo[...]
Why we need to think the unthinkable
Immediately after September 11, 2001, "critical infrastructure" and "vulnerability" seemed to be the[...]