Two New Papers by Dr. Phadnis on Collaborative Scenario Planning to Address Supply Chain Disruptions, including COVID-19

19 Nov 20

Dr. Shardul Phadnis, MISI’s Director of Research and Associate Professor, has co-authored two studies with Prof. Nitin Joglekar (Boston University) that describe how collaboration between a buyer and a supplier for strategic planning using scenario planning can address supply chain disruptions more effectively.

Their first study, published in Production and Operations Management journal (link), shows that when buyer and supplier firms jointly create scenarios of disruptions of their supply chain, they identify more sources of uncertainty (which are “blind-spots” for a single firm) and experience greater ability to influence and control more contingencies (compared to a single firm). The study shows that such collaboration is particularly helpful for identifying supply chain disruptions resulting from changes in regulations affecting one firm. However, the downside of such collaboration is that it increases the complexity of decision making. Therefore, the study provides a Supply Chain Regulatory Preparedness framework explaining when companies should engage in such a collaboration.

In their second study, published in MIT Sloan Management Review (link), the authors extend these findings to the supply chain disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. They explain, how companies have used such collaboration for contingency planning along with digital capabilities to address the disruption caused by the pandemic.