Abstract
This article develops a model and analysis to provide insight into two effective remedies to increase supply chain resilience: (i) contracting with a secondary flexible backup supplier; and (ii) monitoring primary suppliers to obtain disruption risk information. To investigate the true value of these strategies, an analysis is performed under imperfect information concerning the disruption risks and considering a two-stage setting with recourse. In this setting, the firm first monitors its suppliers and then utilizes a recourse option subject to the limited quantity of a capacity reserved a priori via a contract with a flexible backup supplier. The firms jointly optimal behavior is analytically characterized (utilizing only the information available to the firm) regarding two interconnected decisions: (i) the advance capacity investment/reservation level with a flexible backup supplier; and (ii) the inventory ordering policy of the underlying products from both primary and backup suppliers. The presented results quantify effective disruption risk mitigation strategies for firms and provide managerial insights into the value of (i) a flexible backup supplier; (ii) disruption risk information; (iii) a contracted recourse option; and (iv) flexibility in the backup system.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 834-867 |
| Number of pages | 34 |
| Journal | IIE Transactions (Institute of Industrial Engineers) |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 1 2012 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Flexible backup supplier
- backup capacity reservation
- disruption risk information
- disruption risk mitigation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering