Supply Chain Vulnerability and Mitigation Strategy of the Manufacturing Firms in Indonesia: Manager’s Perspectives

Recent supply chain accidents due to epidemics, terrorist attacks, and severe earthquake in Haiti killing thousands of people, as well as typhoon over Manila causing flood to wash out millions worth of property, indicate that firms are vulnerable in today's highly integrated supply chains. Global financial crisis started in the mid 2007 has also brought further implications on supply chain problems. As economic recession reached the bottom line, manufacturing managers experienced a different kind of risks exposing supply chain vulnerability. The effectiveness of supply chain mitigation strategy, which provide a greater ability to respond volatile circumstances is an immediate important. This study explores the perspectives of managers in the manufacturing firms on supply chain vulnerability and mitigation measures within Indonesian environment. The result reveals that supply chain vulnerability is a relatively new concept for them. However, their firms have implemented certain mitigation actions to avoid fatality in the supply chain network.