Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Publication
    Disruptions in Supply Chains : Contemporary challenges and hands-on reactions
    Today, supply chains encompass multiple valued-added stages scattered around the world as opposed to the past, in which companies conducted a larger share of value-added activities in-house with greater regional concentration. These changes are particularly fuelled by the megatrends of the last 25 years - globalization and the fine slicing of supply chains. Globalization has intensified competition, enlarged reach of distribution but also reduced cost by including low cost countries in supply chains. The division of work by outsourcing the development and production of parts, components or complete systems to other companies resulted in "fine-sliced" multi-tier supply chains. More actors in a supply chain are associated with higher complexity and lower transparency. Limited transparency and control in supply chains increase the risk for disruptions. A disruption is an incident in which a sudden lack of availability of materials, information or operational capacities delays, restricts, or prevents the fulfillment of a customer order. Disruptions are caused by natural, economic, personal, social, and governmental risks resulting in significant additional costs, decreasing profits and loss of reputation, impacting on companies at all stages of the supply chain. While disruptions cannot be avoided completely, employing distinct risk and disruption management concepts in supply chain management constitute appropriate countermeasures. BVL International and the Chair of Logistics Management at the University of St.Gallen draw attention to disruptions from a practical perspective in seven individual case studies. Therein, attention is drawn to disruptions that occur (1) in distribution activities to customers, (2) in production activities, and (3) in sourcing activities with suppliers and sub-suppliers.
  • Publication
    Disruptions in supply chains : Summarizing the theorectical and practical perspectives on challenges and reactions
    Today, supply chains encompass multiple valued-added stages scattered around the world as opposed to the past, in which companies conducted a larger share of value-added activities in-house with greater regional concentration. These changes are particularly fuelled by the megatrends of the last 25 years - globalization and the fine slicing of supply chains. Globalization has intensified competition, enlarged reach of distribution but also reduced cost by including low cost countries in supply chains. The division of work by outsourcing the development and production of parts, components or complete systems to other companies resulted in "fine-sliced" multi-tier supply chains. More actors in a supply chain are associated with higher complexity and lower transparency. Limited transparency and control in supply chains increase the risk for disruptions. A disruption is an incident in which a sudden lack of availability of materials, information or operational capacities delays, restricts, or prevents the fulfillment of a customer order. Disruptions are caused by natural, economic, personal, social, and governmental risks resulting in significant additional costs, decreasing profits and loss of reputation, impacting on companies at all stages of the supply chain. While disruptions cannot be avoided completely, employing distinct risk and disruption management concepts in supply chain management constitute appropriate countermeasures. BVL International and the Chair of Logistics Management at the University of St.Gallen draw attention to disruptions from a practical perspective in seven individual case studies. Therein, attention is drawn to disruptions that occur (1) in distribution activities to customers, (2) in production activities, and (3) in sourcing activities with suppliers and sub-suppliers.
  • Publication
    Case Study Sampling
    ... Generic approaches on the reaction to disruptions in supply chains were derived from the results of the working group's discussions and confirmed by state-of-the-art literature. This served as basis for the Wütz and Stölzle's (2014) conceptual essay. In order to accentuate the practical perspective, seven case studies are conducted addressing the contemporary challenges and hands-on reactions to disruptions in supply chains. The case studies draw attention to disruptions that occur (1) in distribution activities to customers, (2) in production activities, and (3) in sourcing activities with suppliers and sub-suppliers. Table 1 provides a summary of the examples clustered according to the part of the supply chain where the disruption occurred. ...
  • Publication
    Disruptions in Supply Chains: An Analysis of Contemporary Challenges and Reactions
    Nowadays companies cooperate with several other institutions in supply chains. These companies have the vision to optimize the value creation from raw material supply to consumer to satisfy customers' needs (Essig, Hofmann, Stölzle, 2013; Mentzer et al., 2001). But the reality differs: supply chains are subject to disruptions due to the lack of transparency and control defects. In supply chains, disruptions caused by one of the supply chain actors, can affect the flows of all actors (Pfohl, Gallus, & Köhler, 2008). This may have the effect of impairing business functions and decreasing the production capacity of companies as well as the whole supply chain (Miller, 1991). For example, in 2011 the earthquake in Japan has led to damages in the infrastructure, which in turn led to a production stop at a manufacturer of pigments of the pharmaceutical and chemical company Merck. As the world's only manufacturer of special pigments for automotive coatings this caused a bottleneck in the automotive industry. Such disruptions can result in significant additional costs, loss of profit and a reduction of a company's reputation (Hendricks & Singhal 2003, 2005; Hendricks, Singhal, & Zhang 2009). ...