COVID-19 and supply chain risk mitigation: a case study from India

PurposeThis study prioritizes the supply chain risks (SCRs) and determines risk mitigation strategies (RMSs) for the Indian apparel industry to mitigate the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic disruption.Design/methodology/approachInitially, 23 SCRs within the apparel industry are identified through an extant literature review. Further, a fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) is utilized to prioritize the SCRs considering the epidemic situations to understand the criticality of SCRs and determine appropriate RMSs to mitigate the shock of SCRs during COVID-19.FindingsThis study prioritized and ranked the SCRs within the Indian apparel industry based on their severity during the COVID-19 disruption. Results indicate that the demand uncertainty and pandemic disruption risks are the most critical. Based on the SCRs, the present work evaluated and suggested the flexibility and postponement mitigation strategies for the case under study.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has novel implications to the existing literature on supply chain risk management in the form of the FAHP framework. Supply chain practitioners from the other industrial sectors can extend the proposed FAHP framework to assess the SCRs and identify suitable mitigation strategies. The results aid the practitioners working in an apparel industry to benchmark and deploy the proposed RMSs in their firm.Originality/valueThe present study is a unique and earlier attempt to develop a quantitative framework using FAHP to evaluate and determine the risk mitigation strategy for managing the SCRs during the coronavirus epidemic.

Using network data envelopment analysis to assess the sustainability and resilience of healthcare supply chains in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The widespread outbreak of a new Coronavirus (COVID-19) strain has reminded the world of the destructive effects of pandemic and epidemic diseases. Pandemic outbreaks such as COVID-19 are considered a type of risk to supply chains (SCs) affecting SC performance. Healthcare SC performance can be assessed using advanced Management Science (MS) and Operations Research (OR) approaches to improve the efficiency of existing healthcare systems when confronted by pandemic outbreaks such as COVID-19 and Influenza. This paper intends to develop a novel network range directional measure (RDM) approach for evaluating the sustainability and resilience of healthcare SCs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. First, we propose a non-radial network RDM method in the presence of negative data. Then, the model is extended to deal with the different types of data such as ratio, integer, undesirable, and zero in efficiency measurement of sustainable and resilient healthcare SCs. To mitigate conditions of uncertainty in performance evaluation results, we use chance-constrained programming (CCP) for the developed model. The proposed approach suggests how to improve the efficiency of healthcare SCs. We present a case study, along with managerial implications, demonstrating the applicability and usefulness of the proposed model. The results show how well our proposed model can assess the sustainability and resilience of healthcare supply chains in the presence of dissimilar types of data and how, under different conditions, the efficiency of decision-making units (DMUs) changes.

Environment-Social-Governance Disclosures nexus between Financial Performance: A Sustainable Value Chain Approach

Governments, institutions, and organisations are being persuaded by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to include environmental-social-governance (ESG) measures in their disclosure systems and sustainable management practices. With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, institutional investors are shifting their focus from profit-making to sustainable and ethical investment. Investors are majorly focussing on ESG measures with financial incentives while making investment decisions. Empirical evidences indicate that firms disclosing ESG measures are likely to outperform others by reducing the risk and enhancing the economic performance, although the results may vary. ESG measures not only promote economic incentives but also encourage sustainable production through value accretive supply chain mechanism. The present study tries to explore the ESG disclosure-Corporate Financial Performance (CFP) nexus w.r.t the presence of sustainable value chains, considering the panel data of 1,170 firm-level observations from 2012 to 2020. In order to resolve endogeneity issue, we use Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) and system GMM approach. The study also focuses on the presence of foreign ownership along with the environmental and social supply chain management practices in ESG–CFP nexus. The findings highlight ESG as an indicator of a sustainable manufacturing strategy and support the link between ESG and CFP.

The impact of digital transformation on supply chains through e-commerce: Literature review and a conceptual framework

One of the profound impacts of digitalization on supply chains is manifested through e-commerce. The latter has significantly grown during the last two decades, with further amplifications during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has created operational and policy making challenges for firms when deciding about how best to manage the resulting growth in e-commerce. While the impact of e-commerce on supply chains has been widely recognized in the literature, there was no effort to systematically review the literature, conceptualize some of the challenges and propose future research directions. This paper fills this gap by reviewing 153 publications from 1999 to 2019. We classify the reviewed literature based on which supply chain drivers were investigated, as well as, the employed research methodology. In addition, we conduct network and content analysis to uncover the main research themes and potential research directions namely, developing analytical centred;modelling based ecosystem for environment;leveraging data mining to enhance sustainability;balance between growth and sustainability;consumer demand and uncertainty;coordination in e-commerce logistics;last mile alternatives and cost management of innovative technique implementations. Furthermore, based on our literature review, we propose a conceptual framework where we interlink supply chain stages with a firm’s business strategy, digital transformation strategy and performance.

Examining the barriers to operationalization of humanitarian supply chains: lessons learned from COVID-19 crisis.

Humanitarian supply chains (HSC) have vital significance in mitigating different disruptive supply chain risks caused due to natural or man-made activities such as tsunami, earthquakes, flooding, warfare, or the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Each kind of disaster poses a unique set of challenges to the operationalization of HSC. This study attempts to determine the critical barriers to the operationalization of HSC in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, we determined and validated 10 critical barriers to HSC operationalization through a Delphi method. Further, we analyzed the barriers by computing the driving and dependence power of each barrier to determine the most critical ones. To do so, we coined a distinct form of interpretive structural modeling (ISM) by amalgamating it with the neutrosophic approach, i.e. Neutrosophic ISM. The findings indicate, "lack of Government subsidies and support, lack of skilled and experienced rescuers, and lack of technology usage" are the most critical barriers that influence the streamline operations of HSC during the COVID-19 outbreak, unlike other disruptions. This is the first-of-its-kind research work that has identified and analyzed the critical barriers to HSC operationalization during COVID-19 in the Indian context. The results and recommendations of the study can aid policymakers and HSC professionals in formulating suitable strategies for successful HSC operations. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10479-022-04752-x.

Role of lean, agile, resilient, green, and sustainable paradigm in supplier selection

During the new COVID-19 outbreak, companies are looking to sourcing leaders to assist them diversify their supply base and prepare for a number of situations. In recent days, the role of emerging paradigms, including lean, agile, resilient, green, and sustainability (LARGS) in highly competitive supply chains, has been gaining momentum. However, there is no research on the LARGS paradigm for sustainable supplier selection in the literature. The aim of this paper is to identify important criteria for supplier selection in the LARGS paradigm and to develop the hierarchical relationship between the criteria. This research has identified 22 key criteria for supplier selection in the LARGS paradigm. Data were collected from 12 experts and analysed by interpretive structural modeling (ISM). From the ISM model, it is observed that geographic location is placed at the bottom of the hierarchy, showing high driving power and the most important criteria while selecting any supplier. Lead time also indicates high driving power and organizations must focus on the suppliers' lead time to improve product performance and introduce new products faster into the markets. The findings will help the practitioners and policymakers to formulate supply chain robustness and resilience strategies to diminish supply chain risks imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The presented model can be assessed as a strategic tool to select a supplier who considers lean, agile, resilient, green, and sustainable criteria simultaneously to increase supply chain efficiency and effectiveness. The study is first of its kind to identify supplier selection criteria in LARGS paradigm and develop hierarchical relationships between them using ISM approach.

Manufacturing and service supply chain resilience to the COVID-19 outbreak: Lessons learned from the automobile and airline industries.

There has been an increased interest among scholars to investigate supply chain resilience (SCRes) in manufacturing and service operations during emerging situations. Grounded in the SCRes theory, this study provides insights into the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the automobile and airline supply chain. Both the short and long-term response strategies adopted by the two supply chains are assessed, using a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques in three distinct phases. In phase one, we use a sequential mixed-method for resilience evaluation, integrating Time-to-Recovery (TTR) and Financial Impact (FI) analysis. In phase two, we conduct an empirical survey involving 145 firms to evaluate the short-term SCRes response strategies. In the third phase, we conduct semi-structured interviews with supply chain executives both from the automobile and airline industries to understand the long-term SCRes response strategies. Our findings indicate that: (i) the automobile industry perceived that the best strategies to mitigate risks related to COVID-19, were to develop localized supply sources and use advanced industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies. (ii) The airline industry on the other hand, perceived that the immediate need was to get ready for business continuity challenges posed by COVID-19, by defining their operations both at the airports and within the flights. (iii) Importantly, both the sectors perceived Big Data Analytics (BDA) to play a significant role by providing real-time information on various supply chain activities to overcome the challenges posed by COVID-19. (iv) Cooperation among supply chain stakeholders is perceived, as needed to overcome the challenges of the pandemic, and to accelerate the use of digital technologies.