Conceptualizing Supply Chain Resilience: The Role of Complex IT Infrastructures

Abstract

To deal with environmental uncertainty, organizations need resilience to respond to disruptions, such as changing market conditions or variations in demand or supply, while avoiding large scale adjustments. The concept of resilience is ambiguous, often explained as the capability of an organization or a supply chain to recover its original state, within an appropriate time frame, after being disrupted. Resilient supply chains have event handling capabilities, can provide efficient responses, and can return to their normal operating performance, after the disruptive event. To increase their resilience, companies often make changes or adjustments to their internal IT infrastructure, which may temporarily disrupt their smooth operation. As a result, contemporary IT infrastructures are mixed and include varied systems or technologies. Although new technologies, including blockchain, IoT and cloud-based solutions, may facilitate the handling of changes by providing secure, low cost and scalable solutions, more traditional systems may hinder such changes. Therefore, the relationship between IT and supply chain resilience is still unclear. The paper intends to examine the above issues by adopting a socio-technical approach to explain the concept of supply chain resilience and investigate the role of IT. More specifically, based on previous literature and on the appreciative systems thinking theoretical perspective, the paper develops a theoretical framework to analyse the organisational and/or supply chain resilience. It then uses this framework to examine and explain the impact of IT, by identifying important characteristics of an IT infrastructure and examining whether they may support or hinder business resilience.

Supply chain information integration, supply chain innovativeness and supply chain resilience among manufacturing firms in a developing context

“…According to Kopanaki (2022), SCRE enables the supply chain to prepare for, respond to and recover from disruptions, regaining its previous level, or preferably, even improving it. A number of empirical and case studies have examined strategies aimed at improving SCRE (Golgeci and Kuivalainen, 2020), but very few have examined the antecedents (Tukamuhabwa et al ., 2017).…”

What Have We Learned? A Bibliometric Review of a Three-Decade Investigation into the Supply Chain Uncertainty and a Revised Framework to Cope with the Challenges

“…Likewise, to increase their resilience, firms often make changes or adjustments to their internal information technology infrastructure, which may temporarily disrupt their smooth operation [83]. As supply chains become more global, they are exposed to additional risks related to geopolitical factors, trade policies, and currency fluctuations.…”

“…Accordingly, a fundamental challenge to efficient performance measurement and management is the inability to achieve alignment, or "fit", between the internal performance measurement and management systems and the external environment, according to the performance alignment matrix [82]. While emerging technologies like blockchain, the Internet of Things, and cloud-based solutions may make handling changes easier by offering safe, affordable, and scalable solutions, Kopanaki [83] claims that more established systems may impede such changes. Nandi et al [84] show that efforts to improve operational-level capabilities rather than strategic-level capabilities are prioritized more in the current blockchain-enabled supply chain systems.…”

Lean Supply Chain Management Model for Best Practice

“…A successful supply chain network synchronizes its activities and data together through the flow of information. The success of the supply chain is highly dependent on the information system, with the information of business partners in the supply chain it can be calculated (Kopanaki, 2022). Information sharing also allows supply chain members to obtain, maintain, and convey the information needed to ensure effective decision making, and is a factor that can strengthen the elements of overall collaboration.…”