Jan Husdal

International Conference on Flexible Supply Chains in a Global Economy, 16 - 18 July 2008, Molde, Norway

This conference is hosted by Molde University College, the leading research and education center for logistics and operations management in Norway. Since this conference is held right at my doorstep I thought I should promote it, especially since my research topic Uncertainty and Disruption in the Supply Chain is one of the topics that is covered.

The art of reviewing journal submissions

The other day I received an email from the editorial board of Transportation Science, asking me to review an article that had been submitted for publication. Transportation Science promotes itself as the foremost journal in the field of transportation analysis, and is published quarterly by INFORMS, so I felt quite honored. This is not the first time I've been asked to review a journal submission, but every time is still a new experience.

Should you join the Supply Chain Network SCN?

I joined two days ago, and it has been very rewarding so far. The Supply Chain Network SCN markets itself as the place where supply chain academics and professionals connect and providing visibility to SCM professionals around the globe.The sign-up is fairly straightforward. Initially I was put off a bit because I was required to leave quite a bit of personal information (professional expertise and such), but then again, how can you connect if you don't know anything about that person? So, this is actually a good thing. On the other hand, as I discovered later, if you prefer to leave "nothing", you can always type "-" instead of adding any information.

Robustness, flexibility and resilience in the supply chain

In a previous paper, back in 2004, I discussed the issue of Flexibility and robustness as options to reduce risk and uncertainty. Since then a new term has emerged: resilience, and today I would like to compare these three terms. Robustness is the ability to accommodate any uncertain future events or unexpected developments such that the initially desired future state can still be reached. Flexibility is the ability to defer, abandon, expand, or contract any investment towards the desired goal. Resilience is the ability of a system to return to its original state or move to a new desirable state after being disturbed. 

Risk Central

Risk Central is a private and personal initiative and web portal started by Roberto Pinto, assistant professor and Ph.D student at the University of Bergamo, Department of Industrial Engineering - with the aim at collecting and share with other interested people news, facts, stories, events, experiences, discussions and whatever could be related to Risk Management, Business Continuity Management, Vulnerability Management, Resilient Enterprise and related topics.

The site contains daily links to interesting articles on various related topics, three white papers by Pinto himself and links to other sites about business continuity and risk management. Go to Risk Central

Why "risk" is the buzzword in supply chain management

A new field has emerged with the field of supply chain mangement. It's called supply chain risk. What is supply chain risk? Today I will take a closer look at the chapter on supply chain risk in Logistics & Supply Chain Management by Christopher Martin, as reviewed in my previous post.

A supply chain is often imagined as a streamlined flow from a supplier to a company, from where it flows effortlessly on to a customer. So much for the theory. In reality, the emergence of various supply chain management strategies and practices contribute to considerable chaos within these supply chains, see image left, taken from the book Logistics Management and Strategy by Harrison and van Hoek. It is not surprising then that supply chains have become vulnerable, where even minor disruptions may result in chain-wide impacts across the whole supply chain. Along with supply chain risk, supply chain vulnerability is also and new and emerging field in the realm of supply chain management.

Book Review: Logistics and Supply Chain Management

This book by Martin Christopher, Logistics & Supply Chain Management, is one of the better if not among the best books on supply chain management. Written by Professor Martin Christopher of the Cranfield School of Management ,the book deals particularly with best practices in supply chain management in the current era of globalization. Responsiveness, reliability and relationships are the basis for successful logistics and supply chain management. Strategies like Just-In-Time (JIT), Lean and Agile thinking are reviewed, and last not least, there is a very solid chapter on supply chain risk, which I will highlight in a separate post later.

Supply chains compete, not companies

"Supply chains compete, not companies" is the motto on Martin Christopher's web site, www.martin-christopher.info. Martin Christopher is is Professor of Marketing and Logistics at Cranfield School of Management. His work in the field of logistics and supply chain management has gained international recognition. He has published widely and his recent books include Logistics and Supply Chain Management and Marketing Logistics.

Martin Christopher's particular research interests lie at the interface between marketing and logistics reflecting his belief that these two critical activities underpin superior supply chain performance.

Currently there are three major fields of research in which Martin Christopher is engaged with colleagues from Cranfield:

1. Agile Supply Chains
2. Supply Chain Risk & Sustainability
3. Creating Value Through Networks

On Martin Christopher's web site you can read more about him and his research interests, download his articles and find a number of interesting supply chain links.

In my next post I will review the lastest edition of his book Logistics & Supply Chain Management: creating value-adding networks.

Three steps to make your supply chain less vulnerable

Some time ago, Jeff Karrenbauer, CEO of Insight Inc., a top international provider of supply chain planning solutions for the world's foremost companies, wrote an article on the TechLinks Georgia website titled How to Audit, Analyze, and Mitigate Supply Chain Vulnerability.

The article makes a strong case for every CEO of any company to demand a comprehensive supply chain risk audit and a corresponding set of mitigation strategies immediately and wait until after disaster strikes only to realize that "we should (or could) have known better".

To make the supply chain more resilient, businesses need to do more than just think about the problem; they must prepare to act effectively.

Now, why is this so important?

Will Climate Change have an impact on transportation?

Many studies have already examined the potential impacts of climate change on broad sectors of the economy, such as agriculture and forestry, but only a handful have studied the impacts on transportation.

Transportation professionals should look into the challenges posed by climate change and incorporate current scientific knowledge into the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of transportation systems. Every mode of transportation will be affected as climate change poses new and often unfamiliar challenges to infrastructure providers.

Special Report 290: Potential Impacts of Climate Change on U.S. Transportation is the report from a study conducted by a committee of experts under the auspices of the Transportation Research Board and the Division on Earth and Life Studies of the National Research Council. It makes the case that focusing on the problem now should help avoid costly future investments and disruptions to operations.The primary focus of this study is on the consequences of climate change for U.S. transportation infrastructure and operations. However, after reading it I have to admit that many of the conclusion are just as applicable anywhere else in the world.

Summary report (pdf)
Full report (pdf)

Book Review: Strategies and Tactics in Supply Chain Event Management

Operations Management and Logistics have been around for a while, but Supply Chain Management is a relatively new field, and it's still struggling to come up with a uniform language or a uniform perspective on what the term "supply chain" actually entails. Here comes a new view: Strategies and Tactics in Supply Chain Event Management. Supply chain EVENT management or SCEM, in essence a scenario tool, is a consideration of all possible occurring events and factors that can cause a disruption in a supply chain. Laden with case studies this book thoroughly explains what possible problems that can arise in a supply chain and how to deal with them. Edited by Dipl.Inform. Raschid Ijioui of RWTH Aachen, the largest university of technology in Germany and one of the most renowned in Europe. Richly illustrated, easy to read and hands-on. For researchers in supply chain risk management, two articles are well worth reading, one of which I already mentioned in this post: Supply Chain Risk Management: A Neural Network Approach