Risk Factor Management: a Mechanism of Supporting Supply Chain Resilience

Abstract

Supply chain assumes a unique business process without inter-company boundaries. Each supply chain partner is important for achievement of customer requirements. On the one hand, supply chain is an inexhaustible source of competitive advantage, created by the companies, which constitute it. However, on the other hand, due to its complexness, supply chain is an easy target of numerous factors, which jeopardize its competitiveness. Some of those factors are: turbulence, deliberate threats, external pressures, resource limits, sensitivity, and supplier/customer disruptions. Successful dealing with those factors assumes establishment of mechanisms for increasing supply chain resilience. Many researches indicate that some factors have greater influence on supply chain disruption and discontinuance. If those factors can be isolated, it will be easier to manage them or to avoid their influence. Therefore, the objective of the research presented in this paper is identification of the most frequent causes of supply chain disturbances, as a first step for developing supply chain resilience. According to the research results, the authors suggest what should be a primary focus of supply chain management, dealing with issues of resilience. Also, the authors indicate which characteristics (capability factors) supply chains have to have in order to be considered resistant.Lanac snabdevanja predstavlja jedinstven poslovni proces bez međukompanijskih granica. Svaki partner lanaca snabdevanja važan je za ostvarivanje zahteva korisnika. S jedne strane, lanac snabdevanja je neiscrpan izvor konkurentske prednosti, stvorene od strane kompanija koje ga čine. Međutim, s druge strane, zbog svoje kompleksnosti, lanac snabdevanja je laka meta brojnih faktora koji ugrožavaju njegovu konkurentnost. Neki od tih faktora su: turbulencije, namerne pretnje, spoljni pritisci, ograničenje resursa, osetljivost, poremećaji kod dobavljača/kupca. Uspešno upravljanje tim faktorima pretpostavlja uspostavljanje mehanizama za povećanje otpornosti lanca snabdevanja. Mnoga istraživanja pokazuju da neki faktori imaju veći uticaj na poremećaje i prekide u lancu snabdevanja. Ako se ovi faktori mogu izolovati, biće lakše upravljati njima ili izbeći njihov uticaj. Dakle, cilj istraživanja u ovom radu je identifikacija nekih najčešćih uzroka poremećaja u lancu snabdevanja, kao prvi korak za razvoj otpornih lanca snabdevanja. Na osnovu istraživanja, autori ukazuju na to šta bi trebalo da bude fokus menadžmenta lanca snabdevanja, koji se bavi pitanjem otpornosti. Takođe, autori ukazuju na karakteristike koje lanci snabdevanja moraju imati kako bi se smatrali otpornim.