A case study approach for understanding inbound supply risk assessment

Abstract

The purpose of the research was to understand the inherent questions related to supply risk and its management. The task was to investigate how organizations discover and assess the existing supply risk to establish the extent of losses, the likelihood of potential losses, and the significance of potential losses. Case studies of six purchasing organizations were conducted to investigate how those purchasing organizations perceive and manage supply risk. The case organizations defined perfect order in relation to supply risk in terms of meeting complete and correct order, defect free, and the financial effect. The organizations implement supply management techniques that focus on quality and supplier improvement that had a secondary purpose to discover supply risk. The research findings can provide supply managers insights into techniques for proactively discovering and assessing supply risk. A combination of some or all of these techniques can be integrated for proactively understanding the supply risk that exists, and the potential impact that risk would have.