Explainability in supply chain operational risk management: A systematic literature review

It is important to manage operational disruptions to ensure the success of supply chain operations. To achieve this aim, researchers have developed techniques that determine the occurrence of operational risk events which assists supply chain operational risk managers develop plans to manage them by de-tection/monitoring, mitigation/management, or optimization techniques. Various artificial intelligence (AI) approaches have been used to develop such techniques in the broad activities of operational risk management. However, all of these techniques are black box in their working nature. This means that the chosen technique cannot explain why it has given that output and whether it is correct and free from bias. To address this, researchers argue the need for supply chain management professionals to move towards using explainable AI methods for operational risk management. In this paper, we conduct a systematic literature review on the techniques used to determine operational risks and analyse whether they satisfy the requirement of them being explainable. The findings highlight the shortcomings and inspires directions for future research. From a managerial perspective, the paper encourages risk managers to choose techniques for supply chain operational risk management that can be auditable as this will ensure that the risk managers know why they should take a particular risk management action rather than just what they should do to manage the operational risks. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This paper emphasizes the importance of managing operational disruptions for the success of supply chain operations and the necessity of using explainable AI methods to manage operational risks. The research also highlights the shortcomings of current techniques and provides inspiration for future research directions.