Supply Chain Risks and Mitigation Strategies: A Critical Review

Due to globalization, the breadth and scope of supply chains have been enhanced up to rather critical thresholds. This has increased the vulnerability of supply chains to disturbance and disruptions. Hence, it is important for supply chain managers to have a thorough knowledge about these risks before they take any decisions. This paper seeks to identify and classify various risks related to supply chains. It also ventures into risk mitigation strategies discussed in literature. Based on an extensive literature survey, the risks reported so far by researchers have been identified and categorized into eight categories. Significant shortening of product and technology life cycles and competitive product introductions make life-cycle related issues, difficult to predict. As supply chains become more complex, supply chain risks increase. Before making any important business decisions, the associated risks need to be identified and appropriate response plans need to be developed in order to diminish, counteract, (or ideally eliminate) potential adverse effects.