Risk Assessment and Management in Supply Chain

Supply chains have expanded rapidly over the decades, with the aim to increase productivity, lower costs and fulfil demands in emerging markets. The increasing complexity in a supply chain hinders visibility and consequently reduces one’s control over the process. Cases of disruption such as the ones faced by Ericsson have shown that a risk event occurring at one point of the supply chain can greatly affect other members, when the disruption is not properly controlled. Complexity and disintegration are emerging as major challenges in supply-chain risk management. It has become more difficult to identify risks as supply-chain operations have fallen into the hands of outside service providers, and are therefore less visible. The risks, their identification and impact depend on the position of the companies in the chain, and on the level of analysis they can carry out. . Supply chain management thus faces a pressing need to maintain the expected yields of the system in risk situations. This work provides a review of definitions and classifications of types of risk; a holistic view of risk assessment and management is taken here. This project aims to analyse how supply chain risks could be effectively managed. This is done firstly by positioning the research agenda in Supply chain Risk Management (SCRM).Then, methods for effective management of supply chain risk are identified and analysed.