Resilience in the sense of engineering resilience For a long time, the interpretation of resilience in the sense of
engineering resilience prevailed in supply chain management. A popular implementation of this idea in supply chain management is given by measuring the
time-to-survive and the
time-to-recover of the supply chain, allowing to identify weak points in the system. Acting like an engineer by redesigning the supply chain like on the drawing board, often by creating redundancies (e.g.
multiple sourcing), strengthens resilience. In the short term, a supply chain can be viewed as a relatively rigid system. The idea of persistence of a supply chain that follows from engineering resilience therefore makes sense in the short term. However, this approach has mid to long-term limits. While the traditional engineering resilience approach in supply chains focuses on a quick response to restore the system to its ideal and original state after a disturbance, emerging perspectives suggest a shift towards a more proactive adaptation approach. This new viewpoint highlights the importance of not just reactive measures, but also proactive strategies like redundancy, flexibility, and adaptability to ensure the supply chain's persistent performance and adaptability in the face of disruptions.
Resilience in the sense of socio-ecological resilience Social-ecological resilience goes back to
ecological resilience, adding to it human decision-makers and their social interactions. A supply chain is thus interpreted as a
social-ecological system that – similar to an ecosystem (e.g. forest) – is able to constantly adapt to external environmental conditions and – through the presence of social actors and their ability to foresee – also to transform itself into a fundamentally new system. This leads to a
panarchical interpretation of a supply chain, embedding it into a
system of systems, allowing to analyze the interactions of the supply chain with systems that operate at other levels (e.g. society, political economy, planet Earth). Recent studies and data have examined how European Union firms responded to significant supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, maritime transport issues, and geopolitical conflicts. These events exposed the vulnerabilities of EU supply chains, particularly their reliance on foreign imports. For example, in 2023 44% of EU firms that imported from China experienced transport and logistics challenges, while only 22% of the firms that imported solely within the EU reported similar numbers. Digital technologies are increasingly integral to building supply chain resilience. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence (2023), over one-third of supply chain organizations have deployed AI and machine learning technologies, with an additional 30% in proof-of-concept stages. These technologies are utilized for real-time monitoring, predictive modeling,
scenario planning, and intelligence to support proactive decision-making, thereby enhancing both operational and socio-ecological resilience. In response to challenges like these, trade patterns have shifted. The share of EU exports directed to the US increased to 21% in 2023, compared to a 14% in 2010. This is in order to mitigate risk and enhance supply chain resilience. ==See also==