An integrated optimization model for planning supply chains' resilience and business continuity under interrelated disruptions: a case study

Purpose - The adverse interactions between disruptions can increase the supply chain's vulnerability. Accordingly, establishing supply chain resilience to deal with disruptions and employing business continuity planning to preserve risk management achievements is of considerable importance. The aforementioned idea is discussed in this study. Design/methodology/approach - This study proposes a multi-objective optimization model for employing business continuity management and organizational resilience in a supply chain for responding to multiple interrelated disruptions. The improved augmented e-constraint and the scenario-based robust optimization methods are adopted for multi-objective programming and dealing with uncertainty, respectively. Acase study of the automotive battery manufacturing industry is also considered to ensure real-world conformity of the model. Findings - The results indicate that interactions between disruptions remarkably increase the supply chain's vulnerability. Choosing a higher fortification level for the supply chain and foreign suppliers reduces disruption impacts on resources and improves the supply chain's resilience and business continuity. Facilities dispersion, fortification of facilities, lateral transshipment, order deferral policy, dynamic capacity planning and direct transportation of products to markets are the most efficient resilience strategies in the under-study industry. Originality/value - Applying resource allocation planning and portfolio selection to adopt preventive and reactive resilience strategies simultaneously to manage multiple interrelated disruptions in a real-world automotive battery manufacturing industry, maintaining the long-term achievements of supply chain resilience using business continuity management and dynamic capacity planning are the main contributions of the presented paper.

Automated summary

This study discusses the importance of establishing supply chain resilience and employing business continuity planning to deal with disruptions in order to manage the vulnerability of the supply chain. It proposes a multi-objective optimization model, using business continuity management and organizational resilience, to respond to multiple interrelated disruptions. The study finds that interactions between disruptions significantly increase the supply chain's vulnerability and suggests several effective resilience strategies.