Emergencies in Logistics : Risk Management in the Supply Chain

Managing supply chain risks is an inevitable part of supply chain management (SCM). During the last few years, unexpected disruptive events are becoming more frequent affecting the vulnerability of logistics, as a core component of the business environment and raise the risk over the tolerable level. In intelligent collaborative networks and processes, such as logistics, emergence phenomenon are unexpected, complex problems that arise from the interactions of system parts and often bring new, difficult-to-predict challenges. As a result of system development, the ability to actually deliver emergency responses in the logistic management scenarios where they are most needed, the proper operational solutions need to become a core concept in all aspects of the planning, preparation and delivery of those services. In this article, the authors examine these emergent characteristics of logistics systems in a complex model and describe the theoretical and practical solutions that can reduce SCM risks.