Maintaining viability by rapid supply chain adaptation using a process capability index

Unpredictable disruptions of the supply chain, as they have been caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, require a rapid adaptation of the supply chain, i.e., the reconfiguration of processes and structures to reestablish resilience and maintain viability. Promising reconfigurations need to be identified and assessed regarding anticipatable supply chain performance and costs. Nevertheless, a comprehensive comparison of all potential reconfigurations is difficult as several objectives need to be aligned. To support a rapid preselection of the most promising ones, this paper presents the novel approach of a Supply Chain Resilience Analysis (SCRA), which allows to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of supply chain reconfigurations under disruption to ensure long-term recovery. Key concept of the SCRA is the combination of all relevant metrics into a single Supply Chain Resilience Index (SCRI) that builds upon an adapted process capability index (PCI). The PCI is usually applied in quality management of production processes to assess if a process adheres to specified limits of quality characteristics. In combination with a digital twin of the supply chain, the SCRA methodology can be applied for an automatic pre-selection of supply chain reconfigurations. For verification and validation of the developed methodology and its index, the presented methodology has been applied in a use case of an automotive supply chain.