The spread of COVID-19 pandemic in the world and the importance of controlling it in all regions have made managing this crisis a great challenge for all countries. The devastating effect on global automotive supply chains due to the disruptions has resulted in losses and shut down of production facilities owing to government restrictions due to the spread of infections leading to supply breakdown across all tiers of supply chain. It has resulted in shortage of crucial components to the automobile industry. A stochastic goal programming model is developed to incorporate disruptions in the supply chain. The model is used to simulate the current crisis of COVID-19 as numerical cases. Supply chain resilient strategy such as China Plus One strategy that involves diversification of supplier base to other locations along with China is analysed. The key finding is that a China-Plus-One strategy appears to be beneficial to both parties involved, organizations that seek to pursue it for reasons of risk diversification, cost reduction or avoidance of overreliance on China and for Plus-One host economies which gain the benefits of FDI. The contribution of the study is in integrating the supply chain resilience literature and operational research tools to model a global supply chain under uncertainty and making a case for change in supply chain strategy from efficient supply chain to resilient supply chains. The study attempts to support the implementation of the China Plus One Strategy as the most suitable resilient strategy post COVID-19. / Spridningen av covid-19-pandemin i världen och vikten av att kontrollera den i alla regioner har gjort att hantera denna kris till en stor utmaning för alla länder. Den förödande effekten på globala fordonsförsörjningskedjor på grund av störningarna har resulterat i förluster och nedläggningar av produktionsanläggningar på grund av statliga restriktioner på grund av spridningen av infektioner som leder till leveransuppdelning över alla nivåer av försörjningskedjan. Det har resulterat i brist på avgörande komponenter till bilindustrin. En stokastisk målprogrammeringsmodell utvecklas för att införliva störningar i försörjningskedjan. Modellen används för att simulera den nuvarande krisen med COVID-19 som numeriska fall. En strategi för motståndskraftig leveranskedja som China Plus En strategi som innebär diversifiering av leverantörsbasen till andra platser tillsammans med Kina analyseras. Nyckelresultatet är att en China-Plus-One-strategi verkar vara till nytta för båda inblandade parter, organisationer som försöker eftersträva den på grund av riskdiversifiering, kostnadsreduktion eller undvikande av övertilltro till Kina och för Plus-One-värdekonomier som vinner fördelarna med utländska direktinvesteringar. Studiens bidrag är att integrera litteraturen om försörjningskedjans motståndskraft och operativa forskningsverktyg för att modellera en global försörjningskedja under osäkerhet och göra ett argument för förändring av strategin för försörjningskedjan från effektiv försörjningskedja till spänstiga försörjningskedjor. Studien försöker stödja implementeringen av China Plus One-strategin som den mest lämpliga motståndskraftiga strategin efter COVID-19.

The pandemic (Covid-19) has since the beginning of 2020 caused major changes for many different companies. To minimize the spread of the virus several different measures have been implemented by local authorities. Additionally, a military conflict occurred between Russia and Ukraine in the early 2022, it has caused sanctions and led to many consequences including deterioration in the supply of raw materials. This study investigates a case company that assembles trucks for sewer cleaning in purpose to identify how the consequences of the pandemic and military conflict have affected its material supply, production, and delivery capacity to customers. The purpose is also to examine how the consequences can be managed to maintain an efficient business.  The study is based on an abductive research approach and the data collection was mainly based on semi- and unstructured interviews. The collected data from the interviews has then been analyzed with relevant theories.  During the pandemic the case company was affected by delivery delays, which further caused disruptions in production and a poor delivery capacity to customers. Similar outcomes are caused by the military conflict, the delivery from suppliers have deteriorated and continued to affect the production capacity of the case company, which is expected to decrease the delivery precision to customers. These consequences have caused the need of other methods than Just-in-time (JIT) to be applied during crisis, and a different view of tied up capital is also required. Measures to reduce the impacts of the pandemic have involved larger safety stocks, standardization, and innovation by building on support frames.   The study concludes that a resilient supply chain and innovative thinking can reduce the consequences of a pandemic and a military conflict, these are some of the theoretical contributions presented by the study. Further studies are proposed for similar industries to enhance generalizability. / Sedan början av år 2020 har pandemin (Covid-19) orsakat stora förändringar för många olika företag. Lokala myndigheter har infört åtgärder i syfte att förhindra smittspridningen av viruset. Vidare utlöstes även en militär konflikt i början av år 2022 mellan Ryssland och Ukraina som orsakat sanktioner, vilket lett till försämrad tillgång av bland annat råvarumaterial. Denna studie undersöker ett fallföretag som monterar slamsugningsbilar i syfte att identifiera hur deras materialförsörjning, produktion och leveransförmåga till kund påverkats av både pandemin och den militära konflikten. Den innehåller även hur konsekvenserna kan hanteras för att upprätthålla en effektiv verksamhet.   Studien utgår ifrån en abduktiv forskningsansats och där datainsamling huvudsakligen skett med semi- och ostrukturerade intervjuer. Svaren från intervjufrågorna har använts till nulägesbeskrivningen som sedan analyserats utifrån relevanta teorier.   Under pandemin påverkades fallföretaget av längre leveransförseningar, som vidare orsakat störningar i produktion och därtill försämrat leveransprecisionen till kund. Studien visar liknande faktorer under den militära konflikten, där leveranspålitligheten förvärrats och fortsatt påverkat produktionskapaciteten, vilket förväntas att försämra leveransprecisionen till kund ytterligare. Samtliga konsekvenser har orsakat att andra metoder än Just-in-time (JIT) bör tillämpas under sådana kristider, samt att det även krävs en annan syn på kapitalbindning. Trots detta har fallföretaget klarat sig undan relativt bra under pandemin tack vare större säkerhetslager, ökad standardisering och genom en innovativ åtgärd att montera på stödramar.  Studiens slutsats tyder på att motståndskraftiga försörjningskedjor och innovativt tänkande kan leda till lindrigare konsekvenser av både en pandemi och en militär konflikt, dessa är några av de teoretiska bidrag som presenteras. Vidare studier föreslås inom liknande branscher för att påvisa ökad generaliserbarhet.

We live in an era where markets are more dynamic and the product life cycle is shorter, an era where concepts such as smart manufacturing and mass customization form part of daily life in industries and where consumption rates of products and services are rising. All these result in more dynamic, global, complex and fragile supply chains. Disruptions are negative impacts on business continuity in companies and when a supply chain is disrupted there is only one way to tackle the challenges originated and is the ability to be resilient. Based on a systematic literature review, this thesis lay out a framework to position Vendor Managed Inventory digital solutions in order to provide full visibility in the supply chains, and enhance agility and flexibility skill sets in the organizations to be resilient after massive disruptions such as the COVID-19. The conclusions of this work provide a positive outlook of the capabilities of VMI solutions to create more resilient supply chains. / Vi lever i en era där marknader är mer dynamiska och produkters livscykel kortare. En era där koncept som smart tillverkning och mass-anpassning är en del av dagliga livet i industrier och där konsumtionsnivåer av produkter och tjänster ökar. Allt detta resulterar i mer dynamiska, globala, komplexa och känsliga försörjningskedjor. Störningar påverkar kontinuiteten i verksamheten negativt hos företag och när en försörjningskedja påverkas av störningar finns det bara ett sätt att hantera utmaningarna som uppstår och det är genom förmågan att vara motståndskraftig. Baserad på systematisk litteratursökning, lägger denna avhandling fram ramverk för att positionera Vendor Managed Inventory digitala lösningar för att förse full synlighet i distributionskedjan och förbättra rörlighetens och flexibilitetens förmågor i organisationerna för att bli mera uthållig efter massiva störningar som COVID-19. Slutsatserna av detta arbete ger en positiv syn på möjligheterna för VMI-lösningar för att skapa mer motståndskraftiga försörjningskedjor.

This paper presents a qualitative case study to investigate how large international Swedish retail companies can adapt their green supply chain management strategies to cope with the pandemic and future crises. The findings are derived by combining relevant concepts of green supply chain management, such as the triple bottom line theory and circular economy, with primary data from interviews on green supply chain practices in four large international Swedish companies.

Supply chain resilience refers to the capability of a supply chain to both withstand and adapt to unexpected disturbances. In today's turbulent business environment, firms are continually seeking to create more resilience within their supply chain through increased information communication technology use and enhanced business-to-business relationships. The focus of this dissertation is the investigation of how information communication technology creates resilience at the differing process levels of supply chain operations. Past research into information communication technology use within supply chains has often been conducted at the macro-level of supply chain phenomena. As such, there is still much to understand about how decision-makers interact with information communication technology at the micro-level of supply chain decision-making. A more in-depth, broad coverage of this interaction will provide both practitioners and academics a better understanding of how to leverage information communication technology in achieving supply chain resilience. To meet this aim, this dissertation contains three essays that re-orient conceptual thinking about supply chain phenomenon, explore how advances in information communication technology influence business-to-business relationships, and identify how information communication technology effects the decision-making of supply chain managers.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:50:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6417.pdf: 3427896 bytes, checksum: eb2bc6774c0f88b25959c63a85b754ac (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-10-30 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / Achieving resilience along the supply chain in today's turbulent business environment requires efforts from both internal and external elements of the company. Because Procurement is currently considered a boundary spanning function, it has become a primary facilitator in helping to create supply chain resilience. The purpose of this study is therefore to understand the role of Procurement in managing the intra- and inter-organisational issues needed to create supply chain resilience. To do so, a literature review was developed by following the systematic literature review method in which intra- and inter-organisational issues that could impact supply chain resilience were identified. These issues were grouped into eight general topics: knowledge acquired, inventory, product and technology for intraorganisational issues; and strategic sourcing, supply chain design, transportation and risk for inter-organisational issues. Dynamic capability (DC) view was also reviewed to offer a deeper analysis and fresh perspective on the empirical results. A multiple case study was conducted in four focal companies from different sectors, including two key suppliers from each one. After all interviews were transcribed, the data was added to the QDA Miner software in order to conduct a content analysis of within-cases and, subsequently, cross-case analysis. Following the theory elaboration defined by Ketokivi and Choi (2014), propositions were developed based on the empirical and theoretical findings through the rationale of the dynamic capability view. As a result, procurement structure and external inventory were found as additional organisational issues, and a new rationale is proposed to explain how Procurement can create supply chain resilience through dynamically managing and controlling the identified organisational issues. The primary theoretical contribution of this research is applying a new perspective to the issue of resilience. The development of these capabilities may help Procurement managers to better cope with current critical supply disruptions and hence help to achieve company survival and competitiveness. / A busca pela resiliência nas cadeias de suprimentos, hoje inseridas em ambientes cada vez mais dinâmicos, requer esforços tanto internos quanto externos às empresas. Como grande parte do risco de ruptura da cadeia de suprimentos se encontra à montante da empresa focal, Compras tem se tornado uma função crítica; principalmente por ser responsável pela solução de conflitos e problemas entre clientes internos e fornecedores. No entanto, pouco se sabe sobre como Compras gerencia esses recursos de forma a lidar com rupturas de suprimentos. O objetivo deste estudo é compreender o papel de Compras na gestão de fatores (internos e externos), de modo a criar resiliência da cadeia de suprimentos. Para tanto, uma revisão teórica foi desenvolvida por meio do método de revisão sistemática da literatura. Neste, fatores internos e externos que podem impactar a resiliência na cadeia de suprimentos foram identificados e agrupados em oito pontos gerais: conhecimento adquirido, estoque interno, produto e tecnologia para pontos internos; e estratégia de suprimentos, configuração da cadeia, transporte e risco para pontos externos. Uma revisão sobre a teoria das capacidades dinâmicas foi também realizada, com intuito de oferecer uma análise mais aprofundada dos resultados obtidos na pesquisa empírica. De forma a completar a compreensão destes pontos, um estudo multicaso foi realizado em quatro empresas de diferentes setores, além de incluir dois fornecedores de cada empresa. Após a transcrição de todas as entrevistas, estas foram inseridas no software QDA Miner para a realização da análise de conteúdo caso a caso e intercasos. Seguindo a orientação de Ketokivi e Choi (2014), foram desenvolvidas proposições a partir da revisão bibliográfica e da análise dos dados empíricos dentro do contexto da teoria de capacidades dinâmicas. Observou-se que a estrutura de Compras e a presença de estoque externo foram apontadas como fatores adicionais. É apresentada também uma nova lógica para explicar como Compras pode criar resiliência na cadeia de suprimentos por meio de uma gestão dinâmica dos pontos-chave identificados sob a lente teórica. Tal resultado é caracterizado como principal contribuição teórica deste estudo. Em termos gerenciais, o desenvolvimento destas capacidades podem ajudar gerentes de Compras a reagirem às rupturas críticas de suprimentos, garantindo a competitividade e a sobrevivência da empresa.

Background & aims: Prior research has, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting supply chain (SC) disruptions, increased the level of investigations in the field of SC resilience strategies. Even though many studies have been conducted within the field, little is known about the effectiveness and efficiency of those strategies. As food SC’s (FSC’s) are among the most important SC’s in our societies, their conservation is of great importance. As the operational purchasing process within the FSC was one of the areas within the SC that was strongly affected by the pandemic, this process will be the focus of the paper. This study seeks to identify the most applied SC resilience strategies for operational purchasing activities in FSC’s for various SC disruptions from a SME food retailers perspective. Furthermore, a framework of how to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of those strategies will be developed. Method: To collect relevant empirical data to answer the purpose of the study a qualitative multiple-interview study is conducted based on semi-structured interviews with respondents of the three different case companies. The case companies were selected and four interviews with one to two respondents per company were conducted. European SME food retailers of long shelf life goods are used as case companies to investigate the research gaps. Results: The study found out that the application of theory revealed the five most applied SC resilience strategies (SC flexibility, inventory management, end-to-end (E2E) SC visibility (SCV), information technology (IT) tools and SC cooperation) in operational purchasing, differences between SME food retailers according to their company size and maturity level. The KPIs identified to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of these SC resilience strategies were found to be applied. The KPIs provided are the basis for measurement opportunities that should be adapted and expanded depending on the business model and complexity of the company as part of the SC design. Contributions: The study adds value through theoretical and practical contributions of the most applied SC resilience strategies within operational purchasing from a SME food retailer perspective and their performance measurement system for measuring efficiency and effectiveness. Limitation & future research: The study is limited to the Covid-19 pandemic as a major reason for the triggering of the investigated SC disruptions. Further limitations can be seen within the selection of the case companies. Future research should investigate the differences between SME within their application of SC resilience strategies for their operational purchasing activities, just like the differences between strategic and operational purchasing. Key words: supply chain resilience strategy, supply chain disruption, Covid-19 pandemic, supply chain effectiveness, supply chain efficiency, performance measurements, key performance indicator, food supply chain, food retailers, purchasing process, operational purchasing

Supply chain resilience has become an important topic within supply chain management, as increasingly complex supply chains set out for increased risk in these networks. Supply chain resilience is a risk management approach that includes the ability to mitigate disruptions through specific capabilities. The previous disruptive events of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Suez Canal blockage-21 have highlighted the vulnerabilities of global trade and the need for more resilient supply chains. The purpose of this thesis was to analyse supply chain resilience and the need for dynamic and operational capabilities in the global maritime transport sector to mitigate impacts from slow-onset and sudden-onset disruptions. In specific, the vulnerabilities highlighted through the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Suez Canal blockage-21 over time. This study was conducted as a multiple case study investigating the maritime transport sector’s resilience during COVID-19 and the Suez Canal blockage-21. The data was triangulated through semi-structured interviews, industry podcasts, and business reports and further analysed using a grounded analysis approach. The study showed that the continuous disruptions on supply chains caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Suez Canal blockage-21 generated economic consequences, congestions, and capacity constraints that the maritime transport sector could not fully mitigate. The study also provides evidence that severe impacts on supply chains were not necessarily caused by a lack of resilience, but rather the persistency of disruptions did not diminish over time. Even though the maritime transportation sector is considered flexible and agile in adapting to the new market situation, increased collaboration, integration, innovation, and digitalization were found necessary to improve the resilience of the maritime transport sector to become even better prepared for future disruptions.

In recent years, the frequency of disruptive events in supply chains has increased. This is partly due to the fact that supply chains are more globalized and more complex, with deeper tiering among suppliers. This makes the supply chain more vulnerable to risks. Supply chain risks that come with the dependencies of global suppliers have been evident due to unexpected global events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the obstruction in the Suez Canal, and the Russia-Ukraine war. To mitigate supply chain risks, a company needs to have a resilient supply chain. Volvo Construction Equipment, a world-leading manufacturer of premium construction equipment, has experienced some particularly challenging years due to global occurrences with material shortages, capacity constraints, and supply routes disruption. This has built up stress in the organization, both among processes and employees. To be able to plan for the coming years of high uncertainty, Volvo CE wants to investigate how they can anticipate and mitigate various risks and resist market fluctuations to create a more resilient supply chain. Therefore the purpose of the research was formulated as: The purpose of the research is to suggest how Volvo Construction Equipment AB can mitigate supply chain risks to secure the future supply chain in a volatile market. To facilitate the fulfillment of the research’s purpose, three research questions were developed concerning risk identification, assessing resilience capabilities, and assessing risk mitigation strategies. The first research question, RQ1, identified Volvo CE’s supply chain risks and the vulnerability of the risks. The supply chain risks were identified through focused group discussions with Volvo CE employees and the most vulnerable risks were determined through a survey with responses from the participants in the group discussions. Three risks were considered the most vulnerable in Volvo CE’s supply chain; lack of raw material and component shortage, lack of labor and competence in production at supplier, and shutdown of supplier factory due to unexpected events. The second research question, RQ2, answered which resilience capabilities Volvo CE possesses today and which should be improved. The resilience capabilities were assessed qualitatively through semi-structured interviews. The interview answers were then interpreted into what SCRES elements Volvo CE possess. It was concluded that all resilience capabilities can be improved but two out of five capabilities, ability to anticipate and ability to recover, were considered to have the most improvement potential as they contain a large proportion of SCRES elements that are not fully possessed today. Through semi-structured interviews and a cross-question analysis with RQ1 and RQ2, the third research question, RQ3, regarding the assessment of risk mitigation strategies could be answered. Based on the result of all research questions, five risk mitigation strategies were suggested for Volvo CE. These aimed to improve Volvo CE’s resilience capabilities with the most improvement potential to be able to mitigate the most vulnerable supply chain risks. The suggested risk mitigation strategies were supply chain understanding, SCRM culture, supplier relationship, backup supplier, and scenario planning. By working with these strategies, Volvo CE could significantly increase its resilience and thus create an organization better able to mitigate supply chain risks to secure the future supply in a volatile market.

Performance-based contracting (PBC) redefines the relationships between suppliers and buyers and differs from traditional contracting approaches with its reward/payment scheme, emphasis on the performance outcomes, increased supplier autonomy, and transfer of risk and responsibilities to suppliers. Given the 70% of life cycle costs of products/systems reside in sustainment, PBC has led to substantial improvements in availability, maintainability, reliability, and thus total cost of ownership of systems/products. Though PBC has changed the way of doing business and its presence has increased across multiple industry, private and public sectors, for profit and not-for-profit, its implications on various aspects of logistics and supply chain management have been understudied. It is important to explore and establish evidence regarding these implications through academic rigor. Therefore, this three-essay dissertation aims to give some insight regarding structural and behavioral implications of PBC using a multi-method approach. Specifically, it (1) explores the relationship between PBC and supply chain resilience (SCRES), (2) examines the supplier goal commitment (i.e., motivation) in PBC, (3) proposes a mathematical model to find optimal contract length, periodic contract price and investment that concurrently maximizing supplier profit and satisfying buyer requirements. This dissertation offers theoretical and managerial contributions as well.