Graduation Year

2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

D.B.A.

Degree Granting Department

Business Administration

Major Professor

Alan Hevner, Ph.D.

Co-Major Professor

Matthew Mullarkey, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Sunil Mithas, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Robert Hammond, D.B.D.

Keywords

Centrality, Complexity, Design Science Research, Modeling, SCRM, Uncertainty

Abstract

The world has entered an era of retreating globalization, mounting geo-political tensions, rising protectionism, and increasing focus on the fragility of complex supply chains. The negative impacts of supply chain disruptions have been increasingly documented since the turn of the century. Given the global scale of recent disruptions, supply chain resiliency has become a national imperative. The Global Financial Crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic, and other major disruptive events demonstrate the active role of government in mitigating damage, the enduring effects of regulation, and the resultant re-evaluation of supply chain strategies by the private and public sectors. In this environment, supply chains are subject to disruption due to “supplier failure.” This research defines “supplier failure” as an event or condition that precludes a supplier from delivering what is needed at the right time. Since supplier failure is uncertain and not completely predictable, this research sought a method to assess supply chain resiliency that broadens the standard risk analysis by incorporating an understanding of vulnerability in the supply chain of complex engineered products. This research, using the elaborated action design research (eADR) methodology, proposes a model for assessing supply chain resiliency based upon risk and vulnerability with their inherent uncertainty. The resulting recommendations suggest evolution from a narrow focus on risk analysis to a broader assessment of supply chain resiliency, defined as the capability for anticipating unexpected supplier failure and responding adaptively. This research draws on theory from the risk management, network analysis, cyber security, complexity, and uncertainty domains to provide a multi-disciplinary view of supply chain risk management (SCRM), vulnerability, and resiliency. This dissertation presents an in-depth exploration of risk analysis and vulnerability assessment as it pertains to the supply chains of complex products and develops a unified model for integrating both approaches. The model is validated with a focus group, subject matter expert interviews, and a case study employing computer modeling. This research study uses the unified model to identify the factors that increase resiliency in supply chains – especially when the products delivered are strategic (to the mission of the organization) and inherently complex (i.e. highly engineered products). The research pursues three research objectives: 1. Explore and define the problem space of risk and uncertainty in complex global supply chains 2. Design a supply chain assessment tool integrating risk and vulnerability 3. Develop a methodology for dynamic resiliency assessment The study iteratively creates artifacts (concepts, constructs, methods, and models), rigorously evaluates those artifacts and formalizes learning in a manner consistent with the elaborated action design research (eADR) research method. The contributions from this research include: • Presents a unified model for complex product supply chain resiliency, combining static and dynamic assessment of risk, vulnerability, and impact • Suggests how multiple theories may inform research and artifact design to address a wicked problem that is inherently transdisciplinary • Develops a problem space model that is extensible to other complex networks like power distribution and logistics networks Additional contributions to research include applying the eADR methodology to develop design theories for supply chain assessment tools; identifying relationships between risk, vulnerability, and supply chain resiliency; and developing approaches for assessing both risk and vulnerability. The study’s initial contribution to practice is a logically related taxonomy that distinguishes between risk, vulnerability, and impacts. Terms are used consistently in models and procedures, thus facilitating accurate analysis and interventions. The study also develops a prototype decision support tool for identifying the most predictive supply chain risk factors and a novel approach for visualizing the integration of risk and vulnerability assessments. The results of this study point to areas for further research. These areas include purposefully assessing vulnerability in complex product supply chains (much as practice already does for assessing risk), developing effective approaches for dealing with missing and outlier data so significant information is not discarded or masked, and modeling the impacts of supply chain disruptions to better prioritize intervention efforts. In conclusion, this research investigates augmenting traditional supply chain risk analysis with vulnerability assessment, a subject still nascent in the SCRM literature and practice. Using the eADR method, this study develops a novel unified model for integrating risk and vulnerability measures to better assess the resiliency of supply chains for complex engineered products. This dissertation identifies and proposes opportunities for future research into the functioning of supply chains, the causes of disruptions, and innovative approaches for using increasingly available data and computing power to develop tools for accurate prediction.

Download

Share

COinS