Requirements for Value Network Foresight - Supply Chain Uncertainty Reduction

Value Networks (VN) are complex structures of Supply Chains and comprise a multitude of organisational, political, societal and other network partners. The complexity of VNs entails a rising amount and variety of endogenous and exogenous parameters, which lead to a high level of uncertainty. The need for a responsive, anticipatory, network-oriented and systematic foresight approach is recognized in industry and academia. The current paper analyses the requirements of a VN foresight (VNF) approach and presents them on five levels: 1) identification of strategic signals in external VN parts, 2) forwarding of critical operative and tactical internal VN events, 3) analysis of signals and events and description of future scenarios, 4) preparation of scenarios for simulation-models and 5) derivation of VN strategy and adaption requirements. The generated list of requirements could serves as a basis for developing a detailed VNF framework in the course of future research activities.