The Resilience Paradigm in the Supply Chain Management: A Case Study

Supply chains are facing numerous changes that are contributing to increasing their complexity and vulnerability to disturbances. To survive, supply chains must be resilient. However, the specificities of each supply chain allied to the uncertainty environment in which they operate, do not allow to determine, with advance, which is the most appropriate strategy to mitigate the negative effects of a likely disturbance. To understand how some management strategies improve supply chain resilience to a disturbance, and how they influence supply chain performance, scenario analysis was used. A case study related to a Portuguese automotive supply chain is presented. Two strategies widely used to mitigate disturbance effects on supply chains were considered and six scenarios were designed. The scenarios differ in terms of presence or absence of a disturbance and a mitigation strategy. To evaluate the scenarios designed, two key performance measurements were defined.