The impact of transportation disruptions on supply
Chain Performance
Martha C. Wilson
College of Business Administration, California State University, Sacramento 6000 J Street, Sacaremento, CA 95819-6088, United States
Received 6 January 2004; received in revised form 14 July 2005; accepted 23 September 2005
1. Introduction
The vulnerability of supply chains has undoubtedly received more attention since the attacks on the World Trade Centers on September 11, 2001, even though supply chains have always been faced with assessing their vulnerabilities and managing risk. Risks faced by supply chains are quite diverse, arising from sources both within and external to the supply chain. These include disruptions, delays, information and networking, forecasting, intellectual property, procurement, customers, inventory, and capacity (Chopra and Sodhi, 2004).
Supply chain disruptions are costly (Hendricks and Singhal, 2005), and we need to understand how a disruption affects a supply chain in order to develop appropriate strategies for ameliorating the impact. A disruption is de?ned as an event that interrupts the material ?ows in the supply chain, resulting in an abrupt cessation of the movement of goods. It can be caused by a natural disaster, labor dispute, dependence on a single supplier, supplier bankruptcy, terrorism, war, and political instability. There are many examples of disruptions resulting from these types of events. The Kobe earthquake in 1994 left many companies without parts (Yoshiko, 1995); the northeastern US blackouts in August 2003 adversely a?ected many businesses (Brooks and Vogel, 2003);
Read the article on the impact of transportation disruptions in a supply chain, and then answer each of the following questions. Cite your resources using APA format. (3-4 pages)
1. How does transportation add value in a supply chain?
2. What are the potential disruptions in transportation?
3. How do the disruptions impact the performance of a supply chain?
4. What are the ways to minimize transportation disruptions?