Achieving supply chain resilience: the role of procurement

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of procurement in identifying and managing the intra- and inter-organisational issues which impact supply chain resilience. Achieving resilience along the supply chain in today’s turbulent business environment requires efforts from both internal and external elements of the extended enterprise. Design/methodology/approach – The systematic literature review was conducted between 2000 and 2013 with the objective being to answer the single research question proposed. To do so, a content analysis based on the literature was applied to 30 selected papers. Findings – The study revealed that procurement activities do make a significant contribution to creating supply chain resilience. Emerging from the literature review, certain intra- and inter-organisational issues were identified that could impact supply chain resilience. Also the possible actions that procurement could take to enable the enhancement of supply chain resilience were identified. Research limitations/implications – This study is limited, in that it is exploratory and focuses only on the body of knowledge presented in two databases over the past 13 years. It has also been restricted to the procurement function and the consequent implications for the upstream supply chain. Originality/value – The originality of this paper lies in the identification of intra- and inter-organisational issues from a procurement perspective specifically as they relate to improving supply chain resilience. This raises further questions on the role of procurement in creating supply chain resilience, which has not been well-explored in the current literature.

Managing supply chain resilience to pursue business and environmental strategies

“…In summary, the analysis of this topic area highlights the need for a hierarchy of barriers, an identification of strategies that curb major issues related to information sharing and procurement, as well as a classification of situational barriers and drivers. Finally, whereas past research has underscored the centrality of procurement‐related functions in SCR success or failure (Roberta Pereira et al, ), future research should dig deeper into firm's inefficiencies, whether horizontally in functions, and vertically in hierarchies, but also transversally in systems, processes, procedures, and practices.…”

“…Our study differs from previous work in several ways. First, instead of conducting the review on the concept of resilience in only one or a few specific subject areas (e.g., procurement) (Roberta Pereira, Christopher, & Lago Da Silva, ), we have focused on practices in all disciplines. Second, our review covers publications from 2003 to 2018, thus collecting publications published after 2015, a year during which some calls were made for additional empirical research (Hohenstein et al, ) and which has in fact been well addressed in the 2015–2018 timeframe.…”

“…The results are in line with past literature that underlined how information sharing was instrumental in the success of an SCR orientation (Soni et al, ) and conversely how its lack may therefore be detrimental to SCR. The first two sources of deficiencies relate to the procurement function, further stressing how procurement activities make significant contributions to creating SCR (Roberta Pereira et al, ).…”

“…Although performance measurement plays a central role in deciding future action, managers do not pay much attention to routine measurement of the effectiveness of resilient actions (Brusset & Teller, ). In fact, extant research showed that the lack of effective measurement systems and measurement metrics has prevented firms from attaining significant improvement in firms' resilient actions (Rajesh, ; Roberta Pereira et al, ). Further, Soni et al () identified the lack of an in‐depth understanding of resilience practices and the development of relevant measures to assess those practices, as a major hindrance to firms' capacity to manage SC disruptions.…”

Evidence-Based Resilience Management for Supply Chain Sustainability: An Interpretive Structural Modelling Approach

“…Recent studies on SCRES and sustainability have investigated various aspects ranging from identifying enablers of and barriers to SCRES elements (i.e., how to create and how to achieve SCRES?) [14], an appropriate SCRES definition and essential SCRES elements (i.e., what is SCRES, and how to proactively and reactively prepare for an ex-ante/ex-post disruption?) [13], theoretical foundations of SCRES (i.e., how to continuously manage risk migration in addition to specific and isolated threats?)…”