Conceptualizing Resilience in Supply Chain Simulation

Abstract

Supply chains (SCs) collaborate in production and consumption across the world. SC management techniques attempt to optimize and balance supply chain operations. SC simulation can help support this by exploring “what-if” scenarios across key performance indicators, particularly when SCs are subject to potentially disruptive events. Resilience is the capacity for an enterprise to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of turbulent change. Change engenders SC vulnerabilities and management control attempts to create SC capabilities to address them. We are investigating the feasibility of creating a generic SC Simulation framework that represents sources of vulnerability and resilience and allows decision makers to explore potential capabilities to address them. This article reports progress on the first step of this study towards the creation of a conceptual model of SC resilience.