Jan Husdal

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.

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)

The International Supply Chain Risk Management Network (ISCRIM)

The International Supply Chain Risk Management Network (ISCRIM) is a network of academians interested in how to handle different types of risks in the supply chain. The main purpose of the ISCRIM-network is to speed up, and improve, the research within "Supply Chain Risk Management". I came across this network when I did some background research for my book review on Supply Chain Risk by Claire Brindley. A must-read on the ISCRIM web site  are the ISCRIM newsletters.If you want to be kept up to date on the most current research in supply chain risk you should not miss out on those newsletters. Published 3 times annually, they usually contain a list of the most recent publications (articles or books or dissertations), conferences, links and other miscellaneous bits of information.

Supply Chain Risk Management: A Neural Network Approach

I found a very interesting article in a book on Strategies and Tactics in Supply Chain Event Management. Supply chain event management (abbreviated as SCEM) is a consideration of all possible occurring events and factors that can cause a disruption in a supply chain. With SCEM possible scenarios can be created and solutions can be planned. SCEM takes on a more neutral approach to all events, not just focusing on the negative events, as supply chain risk management is likely to imply.

The article, Supply Chain Risk Management: A Neural Network Approach is interesting to supply chain risk researchers, because it offers a well-written and well-founded and well-illustrated chapter on the theoretical background of supply chain risk management, including a disruption classification and assessment.

Teuteberg, F. (2008) Supply Chain Risk Management: A Neural Network Approach. In: Strategies and Tactics in Supply Chain Event Management. Eds. Ijoui R. et al., Springer Verlag, pp. 99-118

Book Review: Supply Chain Risk

This book, Supply Chain Risk, is from 2004 and edited by Claire Brindley of the Manchester Metropolitan University, the founder of the International Supply Chain Risk Management Network (ISCRIM). It contains 11 chapters written by 11 different authors, each exploring 11 different supply chain contexts and thus 11 different views on supply chain risks and offering 11 different research frameworks, techniques and practices. Difference in opinions aside, the key issue of the texts is the exposure to risk and structures and processes aimed at handling this exposure. The book fully shows that supply chain risk management is a wide field, and thus empirically challenging, with many concepts to be explored.  Nonetheless, this field also offers many research opportunities, as this books shows. I for one, despite the confusion, definitely felt inspired to continue my own research alley into this broad and multi-disciplinary field.

Book Review: Supply Chain Risk Management

This excellent book by Donald Waters, Supply Chain Risk Management: Vulnerability and Resilience in Logistics, offers a comprehensive overview of many important issues in managing supply chain risk. More than 15 case studies and a straightforward hands-on practical approach make this book an enjoyable read. I almost forgot that I bought this book as a text book. This book is written with the manager in mind, and is interspersed with examples from real life, along with calculations and illustrations that explain the concept in a manner that is practical and easy to follow even if you know nothing about supply chain management theory, common sense is all it takes. I highly recommend this book for anybody who wishes to learn the principles of supply chain risk management and put them into practice in one's own business. Worth the price? YES!

Flexibility and robustness as options to reduce risk and uncertainty

Any company operating in international markets will face a multitude of risks. Acknowledging these risks and devising a strategy for how to deal with these risks is a prerequisite for survival in today's competitive market. Assuming that the task to come up with a new strategy implies that the old strategy has outlived itself or at least has proven itself wrong on too many occasions, the stage is now set for a new approach.

This paper will first present the main risks that are facing any company. Then, the available options to reduce these risks will be considered. Finally, in relation to these risks, flexibility and robustness will be introduced as a tool to handle uncertainties (risks).

Keywords: flexibility, robustness, uncertainty, risk