A systematic review of the research literature into supply-chain resilience in the International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics offers new insights for businesses striving to navigate these turbulent waters.
Supply chains stretch across continents and disruptions loom as a constant threat, the concept of supply-chain resilience is now high on the business agenda. Supply-chain resilience is the ability to adapt, respond, and recover from unforeseen problems in order to ensure business continuity and sustainability. This urgency has been amplified by the escalating frequency and impact of supply chain disturbances.
An international team has looked for critical insights for businesses striving to ensure supply-chain resilience, by carrying out an exhaustive review of the research literature. The work involved a systematic literature review and a citation network analysis. Through that the team identified and dissected three prominent strategies underpinning supply-chain resilience: agility, risk management, and reengineering, or restoration. The team was thus able to construct a framework to extract the various relationships between these different factors and how they affect supply-chain resilience building on complex adaptive system theory.
The team looked to a remarkable case study of a large Chinese e-commerce powerhouse and how it coped during the COVID-19 pandemic. They look at its adept weathering of the pandemic storm through judicious supply-chain resilience strategies involving operational flexibility, agility, collaboration, and information sharing. The team show how these measures not only shielded the company from adversity but also bolstered its overall performance.
As managers grapple with supply-chain disruptions especially in times of global crisis, the challenge is to make informed decisions amidst the uncertainty. For businesses keen on fortifying their resilience, the study offers actionable insights. It advocates for the adoption of strategies such as knowledge management, flexibility, and enhanced visibility, accompanied by strong information sharing with supply-chain partners. By adopting a multifaceted approach, companies can improve the different facets of their operations simultaneously and so improve their response to disruptions. The review underscores the pivotal roles of supply chain integration, collaboration, and supplier diversification in countering disruptions and sustaining an uninterrupted supply flow.
The same tactics can boulster supply-chain resilience and at the same time can act as catalysts for improving overall operational stability and efficiency.
Li, C.S., Wong, C.W.Y., Wong, C.Y., Boon-itt, S. and Miao, X. (2023) ‘Empirical research on performance effects of supply chain resilience: systematic literature review, citation network analysis and future research directions’, Int. J. Shipping and Transport Logistics, Vol. 17, Nos. 1/2, pp.80–106.