infonet-economy

Nowadays companies cooperate with several other institutions in supply chains. These companies have the vision to optimize the value creation from raw material supply to consumer to satisfy customers' needs (Essig, Hofmann, Stölzle, 2013; Mentzer et al., 2001). But the reality differs: supply chains are subject to disruptions due to the lack of transparency and control defects. In supply chains, disruptions caused by one of the supply chain actors, can affect the flows of all actors (Pfohl, Gallus, & Köhler, 2008). This may have the effect of impairing business functions and decreasing the production capacity of companies as well as the whole supply chain (Miller, 1991). For example, in 2011 the earthquake in Japan has led to damages in the infrastructure, which in turn led to a production stop at a manufacturer of pigments of the pharmaceutical and chemical company Merck. As the world's only manufacturer of special pigments for automotive coatings this caused a bottleneck in the automotive industry. Such disruptions can result in significant additional costs, loss of profit and a reduction of a company's reputation (Hendricks & Singhal 2003, 2005; Hendricks, Singhal, & Zhang 2009). ...