Helen Peck’s research while affiliated with Cranfield University and other places

Supply chain vulnerability has become a fashionable area of management research. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critique of the extant canon and to review of the positioning of research in the field, together with literature drawn from several relevant and overlapping fields of research and practice. The aim is to foster a more explicit understanding of the relationships between supply chain vulnerability, risk and supply chain management, and in turn their relevance to related fields such as corporate governance, business continuity management, security and emergency planning. The ultimate objective is to clarify the agenda for further research. The paper begins with an examination of the concept of a “supply chain” and the scope and nature of supply chain management (SCM), then the fusion of SCM with the many and varied interpretations of “risk” and its faltering relationship to risk management. It is argued that attitudes to risk and approaches to risk management vary greatly within SCM and between related disciplines. It is concluded that although more work is needed within the SCM discipline, the issue of supply chain risk and vulnerability should not be addressed solely from a functional SCM perspective. Supply chain vulnerability is a concern for many other managerial disciplines. Research agendas should therefore strive to inform and support the needs of all those with a legitimate interest in supply chain risk and vulnerability management.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to address the increasingly important question of supply chain design for global operations. With the rise of off‐shore sourcing and the simultaneous need for improved responsiveness to customer demand, the choice of supply chain strategy is critical. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws its conclusions from case‐based research supported by survey data. Findings The paper provides evidence that the choice of supply chain strategy should be based upon a careful analysis of the demand/supply characteristics of the various product/markets served by a company. It presents the basis for a taxonomy of appropriate supply chain strategies. Research limitations/implications The case studies and empirical research reported in this paper are specific to the clothing manufacturing and fashion industries and there would be benefit in extending the research into other sectors. Practical implications Given the increasing trend to out‐sourcing and off‐shore sourcing, the choice of supply chain strategy is of some significance and clearly impacts competitive performance. Originality/value Whilst there is a growing recognition of the need to match the supply chain to the market, there is still limited research into what criteria should be utilised to aid the choice of supply chain strategy. This paper attempts to extend our understanding of the issues.

Purpose This paper aims to report on findings of a cross‐sector empirical study of the sources and drivers of supply chain vulnerability. Design/methodology/approach The research was undertaken in accordance with the realist tradition. It begins with a descriptive exploratory stage involving an in‐depth exploratory case study of aerospace industry supply chains, validated through in‐depth interviews with managers representing other “critical sectors” of the UK economy. This is followed by an explanatory theoretical stage. The work is supported throughout with reference to relevant literature sources. Findings The findings highlight the absence of any widespread understanding of the scope of and dynamic nature of the problem, which should be considered from multiple perspectives and at four levels of analysis: value stream/product or process; asset and infrastructure dependencies; organisations and inter‐organisational networks; and social and natural environment. Research limitations/implications The paper is normative rather than positive, so focuses on understanding why supply chains are vulnerable to disruption, rather than presenting itself as a prescription for management. The paper does not investigate academic definitions or existing taxonomies of risk. Practical implications The work provides some useful insights for practising managers and policy makers. Originality/value The paper reports on empirical research, then draws as appropriate on network theory and complex systems perspectives to produce a conceptual model of a supply chain as in interactive adaptive system.

Fashion markets are synonymous with rapid change and, as a result, commercial success or failure is largely determined by the organisation's flexibility and responsiveness. Responsiveness is characterised by short time-to-market, the ability to scale up (or down) quickly and the rapid incorporation of consumer preferences into the design process. In this paper it is argued that conventional organisational structures and forecast-driven supply chains are not adequate to meet the challenges of volatile and turbulent demand which typify fashion markets. Instead, the requirement is for the creation of an agile organisation embedded within an agile supply chain.

In today's uncertain and turbulent markets, supply chain vulnerability has become an issue of significance for many companies. As supply chains become more complex as a result of global sourcing and the continued trend to 'leaning-down', supply chain risk increases. The challenge to business today is to manage and mitigate that risk through creating more resilient supply chains. Supply chain managers strive to achieve the ideals of fully integrated efficient and effective supply chains, capable of creating and sustaining competitive advantage [1]. To this end they must balance downward cost pressures and the need for efficiency, with effective means to manage the demands of market-driven service requirements and the known risks of routine supply chain failures. Better management and control of internal processes together with more open information flows within and between organisations can do much to help. However, in an age of lengthening supply chains serving globe-spanning operations, recent events around the world have provided frequent reminders that we live in an unpredictable and changing world [2]. Natural disasters, industrial disputes, terrorism, not to mention the spectre of war in the Middle East, have all resulted in serious disruptions to supply chain activities. In these situations 'business as usual' is often not an option. Modern commercial supply chains are in fact dynamic networks of interconnected firms and industries [3]. No organisation is an island and even the most carefully controlled processes are still only as good as the links and nodes that support them.

In recent years the issue of supply chain risk has been pushed to the fore, initially by fears related to possible disruptions from the much publicised “millennium bug”. Y2K passed seemingly without incident, though the widespread disruptions caused by fuel protests and then Foot and Mouth Disease in the UK, and by terrorist attacks on the USA have underlined the vulnerability of modern supply chains. Despite increasing awareness among practitioners, the concepts of supply chain vulnerability and its managerial counterpart supply chain risk management are still in their infancy. This paper seeks to identify an agenda for future research and to that end the authors go on to clarify the concept of supply chain risk management and to provide a working definition. The existing literature on supply chain vulnerability and risk management is reviewed and compared with findings from exploratory interviews undertaken to discover practitioners' perceptions of supply chain risk and current supply chain risk management strategies.

The emergence of the network organization is a phenomenon that has given rise to much comment and analysis. These virtual organizations are characterized by a confederation of specialist skills or capabilities provided by the network members. It is argued that in turbulent environments such collaborative arrangements can provide a more effective means of satisfying customer needs at a profit than the single firm undertaking multiple value-creating activities. The implications of the network organization for relationship management are considerable. In particular, the challenges to logistics management are profound. The analysis of relationships is clearly linked to competitive strategy in a network context, yet the exploration of the interface between relationships, strategy and supply chain management is far from complete. Therefore, this paper seeks to conceptualize the relationship strategy interface in supply chain contexts. A framework is proposed and its basic principles illustrated through an analysis of the development of relationship strategies between leading market players in the UK brewing industry.

The fashion industry has been beset by the problems of volatile and difficult to predict demand. Many companies involved in manufacturing and retailing in fashion markets have seen the profitability severely affected by their inability to match supply with demand. Traditionally, it was assumed that the problem lay with inaccurate forecasts and that if only those forecasts could be improved then everything would be fine. In fact, experience seems to suggest that even though forecasting techniques and methodology have continued to develop in their sophistication, they can never deliver the accuracy required for managing logistics in fast moving markets. The answer, we would suggest, lies not in better forecasts but in reducing the dependency on the forecast. The way to bringing this about, it can be argued, is through lead-time management.