Resilience in Supply and Demand Networks

Abstract

The present era is characterised by many events that have influences on supply chains and supply networks. This concerns, e.g., war, epidemics, natural disasters, accidents, strikes, political instability, and political sanctions. These are generally grouped under the term “disruption”. In order to avoid the risk of supply chain disruption, major disruption of supply networks, or loss of customers associated with disruptions, it is necessary to take preventive and proactive measures in supply chain management in terms of planning. This paper is intended to briefly summarise the current state of knowledge with the most important facts and derive a new definition from it. In addition, an analogy to maintenance is established for the first time. In doing so, a comparison of the concepts and a listing of the important proactive measures derived from them for increasing resilience are made. In the course of this, the field of action considered is extended from the exchange of suppliers through the entire supply chain network to the exchange of customers.