The Made Smarter Innovation | Digital Supply Chain Hub programme commissioned WMG, University of Warwick to critically analyse the existing research and practices in supply chain resilience.

Managing supply chains has never been easy due to their complex nature. Covid-19 and recent geopolitical tensions across the globe have rung a bell that supply chain disruptions will always be unavoidable risks for businesses in the UK and elsewhere. To unleash their future potential, manufacturing firms must improve how they manage their supply chains, which, if done effectively, will make them more resilient when confronting any future crisis.

The project has four key aims, exploring: 

• The development of a new definition of supply chain resilience in the new normal.
• Identification of practices and risk mitigation strategies to improve the end-to-end supply chain resilience in the manufacturing sector.
• The development of a practical supply chain resilience framework for evaluating and measuring supply chain resilience.
• Developing the foundation and working method of a digital tool for the assessment of supply chain resilience within the manufacturing sector.

The project explores research through a systematic literature review of the state-of-the-art publications; industry practitioners’ report; framework and tools developed by leading consulting firms.

Two industry focused workshops were organised to engage the UK’s leading manufacturing companies and seek their input in developing strategies and frameworks. The developed framework was validated through feedback and validation sessions with senior supply chain executives from three manufacturing industries. 

The project activities involved 50 experts from 42 organisations, including 34 manufacturing and services organisations, and eight universities from across the UK. The organised activities included one online workshop, one face-to-face workshop, and three one-to-one feedback and validation sessions with relevant stakeholders from the industry.

The outcome of the project is a comprehensive report detailing the systematic literature which highlights existing definitions of supply chain resilience, the practices, strategies for managing resilience, and methodologies for measuring supply chain resilience discussing their limitations. 

Click the button below to read the report.