ENSURING SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCE: DEVELOPMENT OF A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

TLDR

Supply chain resilience is essential in turbulent environments where unforeseen events can disrupt even well‑designed chains. The article introduces a new Supply Chain Resilience Framework to assist businesses in managing change. The framework was developed from existing literature and refined via focus group methodology. The framework identifies resilience as a balance between vulnerabilities and capabilities, defines a Zone of Resilience where firms are most profitable, and lists seven vulnerability factors (40 attributes) and 14 capability factors (71 attributes) to measure resilience, with managerial implications and future research recommendations. The authors’ views are not necessarily those of the U.S.

Abstract

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. In a world of turbulent change, resilience is a key competency since even the most carefully designed supply chain is susceptible to unforeseen events. This article presents a new Supply Chain Resilience Framework to help businesses deal with change. The conceptual framework is based on extant literature and refined through a focus group methodology. Our findings suggest that supply chain resilience can be assessed in terms of two dimensions: vulnerabilities and capabilities. The Zone of Resilience is defined as the desired balance between vulnerabilities and capabilities, where it is proposed that firms will be the most profitable in the long term. We identified seven vulnerability factors composed of 40 specific attributes and 14 capability factors from 71 attributes that facilitate the measurement of resilience. The article concludes with managerial implications and recommendations for future research.