Impacts Of Natural Disasters On Supply Chain Performance

Considering the increasing importance of natural disaster events it is inevitable to also focus on their impacts on supply chains as well as their performance impacts on them. The developed approach SCperformND (Supply Chain performance impact assessment of Natural Disasters) demonstrates a methodology to assess those impacts and gives implications for supply chain designs and procurement decisions.

This book investigates individual companies’ and industries’ supply chain risk management approaches to identify risk drivers and verify effective risk-reduction measures and business continuity plans. Typically, supply chain risk assessments focus on normative guidelines based on single best practice examples or vulnerability events, and there has been little work exploring how the concepts of supply chain risk management and resilience are related. However, since this relationship has implications for developing integrated response strategies, a clear understanding of the possible consequences is a fundamental step in building socio-economic resilience along the supply chain. Against this background, the book addresses three main topics: firstly, it defines the conceptual and sectoral domains of supply chain risk management and resilience by examining the welfare effects of extreme weather events and other economic shocks on selected global supply chains. It then presents an in-depth analysis of the scope of public–private partnerships to tackle the risks, by empirically exploring supply chain risk effects and information management. Thirdly, it proposes a regional cooperation framework in the context of major supply chain vulnerability events such as disasters and global financial crises.

The purpose of this book is to explore the ways that industries, under the pressures of global competition, balance sustained industrial competitiveness and robustness against major disasters. The book focuses mainly on the impact of disasters on supply chains for manufactured (mainly tradable) goods. A special feature of this particular theme is that companies have to deal with not only disasters that may come someday, but also global competition that industrial sites have to face every day. If, for example, companies add excessive amounts of inventory to their manufacturing sites for fear of the next major earthquake, they may not survive long enough to see the next earthquake due to their loss of global competitiveness. Thus, on a practical side, this book proposes that companies can balance global competitiveness and the anti-disaster robustness of industrial sites, rather than simply choosing one or the other, if they organize their efforts under the principles of continuous improvement (kaizen) and lean production. We have adopted a framework rooted in a design-based view of manufacturing for the empirical analysis and practical proposals of this book. That is, we argue that a manufacturing process can be defined broadly as the flow of value-carrying design information to customers. It follows that the key to the quick recovery of supply chains is to make the design informations stock and flow robust, visible, portable, recoverable, replicable, and restorable before and after disasters happen. Using these characteristics of information as a guide, companies need to build organizational capabilities for quickly recovering and/or moving the information assets embedded within the production processes that were damaged in a disaster. This book argues that such capabilities overlap to a large degree with the know-how and skills developed by kaizen activities. The empirical case studies contained in this book were conducted through extensive fieldwork at industrial sites mostly in Japan, which is known as one of the countries that is most vulnerable to natural disasters. Although the book mainly covers natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, floods), there is also a chapter on a human-induced factory fire that had a major impact on Japans automotive supply chain. Based on the actual responses of Japanese companies (Toyota, Honda, Aisin Seiki, Epson, Renesas, and Riken, among others) to supply chain and production disruptions caused by major disasters, this book gives practical implications for firms that take a leading role in managing industrial supply chains. In particular, guidance is given on the ways in which supply chains can be diagnosed for vulnerabilities and the remedies that may be applied. One such countermeasure, virtual dualization, is explained in detail as a means for achieving both supply chain robustness and competitiveness for complex products that require intense coordination in their design and production. A common theme that runs throughout the chapter is the importance of building trust among the participants in a supply chain.

Resilient supply chains are crucial to maintaining the consistent delivery of goods and services to the American people. The modern economy has made supply chains more interconnected than ever, while also expanding both their range and fragility. In the third quarter of 2017, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria revealed some significant vulnerabilities in the national and regional supply chains of Texas, Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. The broad impacts and quick succession of these three hurricanes also shed light on the effectiveness of the nation's disaster logistics efforts during response through recovery. Drawing on lessons learned during the 2017 hurricanes, this report explores future strategies to improve supply chain management in disaster situations. This report makes recommendations to strengthen the roles of continuity planning, partnerships between civic leaders with small businesses, and infrastructure investment to ensure that essential supply chains will remain operational in the next major disaster. Focusing on the supply chains food, fuel, water, pharmaceutical, and medical supplies, the recommendations of this report will assist the Federal Emergency Management Agency as well as state and local officials, private sector decision makers, civic leaders, and others who can help ensure that supply chains remain robust and resilient in the face of natural disasters.

This book discusses emerging themes in the area of humanitarian logistics. It examines how humanitarian logistics and supply chains play a key role, focusing on rapidly delivering the correct amount of goods, people and monetary resources to the locations needed to achieve the success of relief efforts in response to global emergencies such as flood, earthquakes, wars etc. With an increase in the frequency, magnitude and impact of both natural and manmade disasters, effective delivery of humanitarian aid is an issue that is becoming increasingly important in the context of disaster management. The book focuses on how logistics systems and supply chains responsible for delivering this aid from origin to recipients can be made more effective and efficient. It also discusses how the development of information technology systems that can provide visibility to the disaster relief supply chain marks a huge step forward for the humanitarian sector as a whole. As more organizations begin to adopt and implement these systems and visibility is established, the use of key performance indicators will then become essential to further enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of these supply chains.

This work combines research and empirical evidence on the economic costs of disasters with theoretical approaches. It provides new insights on how to assess and manage the costs and impacts of disaster prevention, mitigation, recovery and adaption, and much more.

Over the last two decades, several textbooks, research papers, and best practice cases have been published on supply chain management. However, globalization has created dispersed supply chains which are vulnerable and dependent on entities and factors that are exogenous to the supply chain. Resource scarcity, environmental regulations, government policies, political unrest, economic instability, and natural disasters are a few examples of how non-supply chain factors influence the way supply chains are managed. These exogenous factors are not just risk sources but can also be venues for innovation and growth.This book presents the notion of supply chain ecosystem to holistically model all the factors that interact with the supply chain and influence the flow of goods, information, and finance. Through a number of real-life case studies, the authors use the ecosystem framework to study the governance, risk, innovation, and performance issues in supply chain management, and also to redesign the management techniques for global supply chains. In doing so, this book makes a unique contribution to the theory and practice of supply chain networks.

This is a carefully developed work focused on the analysis of supply chain interaction issues in emerging markets and industry sectors. It is a leading-edge handbook that will emphasize areas of study where, thus far, little work has been done and where the "rubber meets the road" – the supply chain process, information, and systems integration. These are pertinent issues facing practitioners and researchers in today’s business environment. This is a gap-bridging handbook that analyzes interaction issues from both the research and practitioner sides. The result is a volume that examines and provides practical solutions on interaction issues while being firmly grounded in research principles.