Supply Chain Risk Management

In his 2009 paper Brian Tomlin analyzes strategies to mitigate disruption risks in a three echelon supply chain.

Setting
Focus in his research is a single company, with its suppliers and customers. The objective is to maximize expected utility, while demand and supply are uncertain. There are two products available which can be used as substitutes. The time horizon for the decision maker is one season where the products can be sold.

Three different sourcing structures are considered.

Perhaps this research by Pero et al. can support small and medium sized companies with the design and redesign of its supply chain network.
The goal of the study was to analyze the connection between topological features of the supply chain and the resulting supply chain performance.

Method and Model
The authors used simulation techniques and statistical analysis to simulate a pull based supply network. The network consists of a retailer-, distributor- and manufacturer-level.
Demand and lead times were random, the supply chain performance was measured with stock outs that occured.

"Improving the rigor of discrete-event simulation in logistics and supply chain research" is a 2009 paper by Ila Manuj, JT. Mentzer and MR. Bowers.
The paper consists of three distinct sections:

1. Introduction of the SMDP (Simulation Model Development Process)
2. Evaluation of the current literature in comparison to the SMDP
3. Explanation of the SMDP using an example