Toward a framework for supply chain resilience

Volatile and unpredictable market conditions are likely to create considerable supply chain (SC) risks such as excess cost, lost sales due to delivery problems or quality impairments. Supply chain resilience, which can be described as a firm’s capability to adequately handle unforeseen disturbances and retain or recapture a competitive state of business, is therefore essential for companies striving to achieve their business objectives. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework which combines capabilities, enablers and objectives of resilience. This framework is based on a comprehensive literature review and systematically integrates research from hitherto separated strands of SC research. It connects various capabilities (changeability, innovativeness, flexibility, collaboration, visibility, and sensing) of SC resilience to companies’ general objectives (survivability, sustainability, and robustness) and depicts organisational structure and processes as enabling factors.