Managing Supply Chain Disturbances – Review and Synthesis of Existing Contributions

Abstract : Companies suffer the effects of disturbances in supply chains more than ever. Highly dynamical consumer demands and globalized supply chains often lead to unplanned supply chain events through to break-downs causing inability to supply. Consequently, concepts for an efficient supply chain disturbance management are needed, preferably with a real-time reaction to disturbance events. Academic literature comprises many investigations dealing with such approaches. In this paper we examine both a range of methodological contributions to design resilient supply chains and approaches for the flexible coordination of supply chain processes in case of disturbances. After summarizing the major contributions, we point out an approach for a real-time supply chain disturbance management with the target to achieve the required flexibility for coping with supply chain disturbances.