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GENERAL LOGISTICSSUSTAINABLE LOGISTICSCLIMATE CHANGEFREIGHT TRANSPORTINFRASTRUCTURE AND PROPERTY- Downloads
Supply chain vulnerability
A consortium led by Cranfield University and including Heriot-University and the Business Continuity Institute were commissioned by the UK Government in 2001 to conduct research on the vulnerability of supply chains. This was prompted by a series of recent events, including the Kobe earthquake, the 9/11 terrorist attack and the ‘fuel price protests’ in the UK, which had shown how ‘fragile’ many supply chains had become.
This preliminary study defined the concept of supply chain vulnerability and examined seven factors that put supply chains at risk: a focus on efficiency rather than effectiveness; the globalisation of supply chains; focused factories and centralised distribution; the outsourcing trend, contraction of the supplier base; volatility of demand and a lack of visibility and control procedures.
The executive summary of this study can be downloaded here.
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