Analyzing the supply chain risk issues for an Indian manufacturing company

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify, analyze, assess and manage the risks issues involved in an Indian manufacturing supply chain. The paper also shows the direction to use the proposed comprehensive risk management framework in different manufacturing supply chain.

Design/methodology/approach

The various risks for an Indian manufacturing company are identified through brainstorming session held with managers and engineers. The risks are categorized (i.e. delivery performance; process capability; demand and supply fluctuation at supplier end; rework; and business practices) and the domain (i.e. supplier, manufacturer and customer) of each risk is also identified for further analysis. A Failure Mode and Effect Analysis is used to rank the impact of all the relevant risks associated with various risk categories and the action plans are suggested by proposing a risk treatment process.

Findings

The degree of impact of each relevant risk is determined and is used for deriving managerial insights. Through Pareto analysis, it is concluded that top 20 percent risk factors are coming from supplier and organization domain. It is interesting to note that no relevant risk related to customer domain is appearing in top 20 percent. It is also found that 54 percent risk is coming from supplier-related risk domain and 46 percent risk exists in the organization-related risk domain among top 20 percent risk.

Research limitations/implications

This study is restricted to only one Indian manufacturing company. Therefore, the outcomes of the study should not be generalized. Further studies may be carried out for several Indian manufacturing industries to get more generalized impact of risks, its validity and their variation across the different manufacturing companies.

Practical implications

The simplicity and clarity of the proposed framework provides step-by-step approach for identifying, categorizing and managing risks involved in the supply chain. It also provides the guidelines for a manager to benchmark and update risk handling in a specific manufacturing environment with its own priority considerations.

Originality/value

Although many literatures are available related to supply chain risk management, the proposed approach provides a better practical generic platform to understand, manage, reduce and mitigate the risks involved along the manufacturing supply chain.

Citation

Kumar Pradhan, S. and Routroy, S. (2014), "Analyzing the supply chain risk issues for an Indian manufacturing company", Journal of Advances in Management Research, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 144-162. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAMR-11-2012-0047