“Much of the past research involving supply chains revolves around risk, which is different from uncertainty. Risk jeopardizes a system, but is predictable,” he explains. “We know that the future holds much more uncertainty – we can’t know the timing or type of extreme weather events or predict their consequences well in advance – and addressing the ambiguity that comes with uncertainty requires a different approach.”
Taking a resilience approach, says Dr. Chapardar, involves dealing with that ambiguity and uncertainty – looking beyond responding and recovering to a disturbance within the system. Adapting and transforming based on those disturbances are two areas that have, so far, not been considered in research connected to supply chains.
In their four-year study funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the researchers aim to change that.
“We are exploring how different stakeholders – companies, suppliers, policymakers, municipalities and citizens – can enhance the resilience of entire systems so that when extreme weather events happen, we face fewer challenges with meeting people’s basic needs,” says Dr. Chapardar.
The project, which will enlist the help of students from all three universities, will happen in phases. The first, underway now, seeks to understand the variables, characteristics and capabilities within the four aspects of resilience – responding, recovering, adapting and transforming – and what they mean to different groups. This step will use various qualitative research methods to create a model for resilient supply chains.