A Framework for Structuring Resilience and its Application to Procurement

Abstract

Companies operate in an increasingly volatile environment where different developments like shorter product lifecycles, the demand for customized products and globalization increase the complexity and interconnectivity in supply chains. Current events like Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic or the blockade of the Suez canal have caused major disruptions in supply chains. This demonstrates that many companies are insufficiently prepared for disruptions. As disruptions in supply chains are expected to occur even more frequently in the future, the need for sufficient preparation increases. Increasing resilience provides one way of dealing with disruptions. Resilience can be understood as the ability of a system to cope with disruptions and to ensure the competitiveness of a company. In particular, it enables the preparation for unexpected disruptions. The level of resilience is thereby significantly influenced by actions initiated prior to a disruption. Although companies recognize the need to increase their resilience, it is not systematically implemented. One major challenge is the multidimensionality and complexity of the resilience construct. To systematically design resilience an understanding of the components of resilience is required. However, a common understanding of constituent parts of resilience is currently lacking. This paper, therefore, proposes a general framework for structuring resilience by decomposing the multidimensional concept into its individual components. The framework contributes to an understanding of the interrelationships between the individual components and identifies resilience principles as target directions for the design of resilience. It thus sets the basis for a qualitative assessment of resilience and enables the analysis of resilience-building measures in terms of their impact on resilience. Moreover, an approach for applying the framework to different contexts is presented and then used to detail the framework for the context of procurement.