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A study on the risk control of supply chain under

the background of globalization

Yong-fei Ma, Li-wen Chen, Shao-dong Meng & Cong-qin Yi

To cite this article: Yong-fei Ma, Li-wen Chen, Shao-dong Meng & Cong-qin Yi (2014) A study on
the risk control of supply chain under the background of globalization, Journal of Industrial and
Production Engineering, 31:4, 221-228, DOI: 10.1080/21681015.2014.934304

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Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering, 2014
Vol. 31, No. 4, 221228, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21681015.2014.934304

A study on the risk control of supply chain under the background of globalization
Yong-fei Maa, Li-wen Chena*, Shao-dong Mengb and Cong-qin Yic
a
School of Economics and Management, Hebei University of Technology, China; bShangHai Customs College, ShangHai, China;
c
ShangHai Customs College, GuiZhou University, ShangHai, China
(Received August 2013; revised March 2014; accepted May 2014)

Using modeling approach of the complex network to construct a supply chain network model, this paper has mainly
studied the problem of disruption risk control of supply chain under the background of globalization. The simulation
result of the supply chain network model showed that the supply chain network is scale-free. The key nodes in the
supply chain network can be identied by calculating the centrality of the nodes. Detailed results demonstrated that the
ability of resist disruption risks and the network resilience of a supply chain can be improved by adding redundancy of
the supply chain network and keeping a high level of collaborative working of the key suppliers.
Keywords: risks control; supply chain; complex network; key nodes

1. Introduction takes place. So, disruption risks have received increasing

The increased globalization affects the supply chain both
on the market side and on the supply side [5]. Modern
commercial supply chains are in fact dynamic networks
of interconnected rms and industries [2]. Simulta-
neously, the complex structure of the supply chain, infor-
mation asymmetry, and the instability of the external
environment make the supply chain increasingly vulnera-
ble to the invasion of various risks, and subject to such
inuences to a different extent. The inuence on the
automotive supply chain, triggered by the 2011 Japanese
tsunami (following an earthquake) and the subsequent
Fukushima nuclear power plant spillage, was far beyond
the expectation of the industry. Because of its special
position in the world automotive industry, the problems
that Japans automotive industry suffered caused by natu-
ral disasters have been responsible for serious damage to
the industry worldwide [7]. This incident once again
proved that once a catastrophe has occurred, supply
chain would suffer damage and huge losses inevitably.
Thus, supply chain risk management is of widespread
concern to academia and industry [10].
Disruption risks essentially belong to a type of sup-
ply chain risk, which is an unpredictable event caused
by human or natural factors that leads to a link or node
failure in the supply chain including logistics, produc-
tion, information ow, capital ow, or a fundamental
change in the supply chain system. Natural disasters,
operational accidents, terrorism, political instability, and
the complex relationships between the members of the
supply chain system (both cooperation and competition)
are the important factors driving the supply chain disrup-
tion risk, which has occurred. With longer paths and
shorter clock speeds, there are more opportunities for
disruption and a smaller margin for error if a disruption
attention in the last several years.
Using complex theory, we can trace the root source
of supply chain risk from a holistic view, probe the
dynamic behavior on the supply chain network, analyze
the vulnerability and robustness in supply chain node,
research the spread of risk in the supply chain and the
risk-resisting ability of the supply chain network, explore
the mechanisms of competition and coordination between
members of the supply chain, and provide the basis for
supply chain network optimization.
2. Supply chain risk
2.1. Disruption risks in supply chain
Some serious events, such as the 9/11 event, oods in
Thailand, the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak
in China, the earthquake in Taiwan, the tsunami and
earthquake in Japan, and other such events present sup-
ply chain management with a huge challenge proving
that the supply chain is fragile, in particular due to envi-
ronmental disruptions beyond its control [8]. Recent
events illustrate that disruptions in supply chain that
might easily and rapidly spread and amplify up and
down the supply chain have severe negative conse-
quences. In a survey at Global 1000 companies, supply
chain disruptions were perceived as the single biggest
threat to their companies revenue streams. Manchester
Business School of the UK developed a unique event
database, which currently holds some 2500 supply chain
disruptions that occurred around the world between 2000
and 2009. Supply chain disruptions may have impacts
that propagate not only locally but also globally and,
hence, a holistic, system-wide approach to supply chain
network modeling and analysis is essential in order to be

*Corresponding author. Email: kevin_shc@yahoo.com

2014 Chinese Institute of Industrial Engineers
222 Y.-f. Ma et al.
able to capture the complex interactions among
decision-makers [15].
The complexity associated with multiple hand-offs in
global supply chain increases the probability of disrup-
tions [9]. Supply chain disruptions are the result of risks
in supply chain risk, often engendered suspends or fail-
ure of the supply chain, logistics, production, informa-
tion ow, and capital ow. The important factor-driven
supply chain disruptions occurred are natural disasters,
operational accidents, terrorism, political instability, and
the complex relationships between the members of the
supply chain system (both cooperation and competition).
According to the structure of the supply chain, disrup-
tion risks in supply chain can be divided into supply dis-
ruptions, logistics disruptions, coordination disruptions,
and demand disruptions. Supply disruptions refer to
supplier delays to provide material or inventory shortages,
which lead to downstream companies production stag-
nated or even paralyzed. Logistics disruptions refer to
something happened to the products in transit from the
supplier to the customer, product damaged in transit, or
that suppliers do not delivered the products on time,
which leads to downstream companies appeared produc-
tion interrupt. Demand disruptions are the temporary or
permanent loss of demand caused by the extension of the
activities or interruption or serious inventory of down-
stream enterprise, which affects the upstream enterprises.
Coordination disruptions are the risks caused by poor
coordination between the members of the supply chain.
Typically, the disruption risk is an unexpected sudden
interruption in the supply chain [12]. Although the proba-
bility of occurrence is relatively small, the inuence to
supply chain is far-reaching [6]. Generally, the more com-
plex the supply chain network is, the more links in the
supply chain, and therefore, greater disruption risks in the
supply chain. As the number of constraints (e.g.
bottlenecks) in the supply chain from supplier to end cus-
tomer increases, the difculty of disruption detection and
recovery increases. However, the probability of an event
occurring may be reduced by effective supply chain plan-
ning and collaboration, quick response for supply chain
redesign, and information visibility effectiveness.
2.2. Complexity and vulnerability in supply chain
networks
Recent growth in globalization has created more com-
plex supply chains with the greater risks. With competi-
tion, shifting from companies to supply chains, it has
become very important for the individual company to be
a member of a competitive supply chain. It has therefore
become essential for the individual company in the sup-
ply chain to nd out what consequences different supply
chain design and management alternatives have for the
competitiveness of the supply chain and of the company
and to actively promote alternatives with high competi-
tiveness. Disruptions can rapidly have severe negative
consequences for the individual company, the supply
chain, and society. In supply networks, complexity
regards both the complexity of the supply network struc-
ture and the complexity of the relationships among sup-
ply network members [3]. Experts agree that supply
chain complexity is real and that it negatively impacts
business. They acknowledge that the real causes of com-
plexity are many and varied: customer tailored, elaborate
products, multiple nodes and links, uncertainty in fore-
casting, etc.
Complexity experienced in a supply chain increases
its vulnerability to disruptions [4]. Demand-side, supply-
side, and catastrophic events can be considered the
drivers of supply chain vulnerability. The demand-side
drivers include demand uncertainty, customer depen-
dence, and disruptions in physical distribution of prod-
ucts to the end-users (customers). The supply-side
drivers include supplier business risks, production capac-
ity constraints on the supply market, quality problems,
technological changes, and product design changes. Sup-
ply chain risk may be the outcome of unexpected varia-
tions, such as capacity constraints, machine breakdowns,
uncertain yields, quality problems, a re, or even natural
disasters occurring in a supplier facility [1]. The
increases in interrm dependence, as well as longer and
more complex supply chain setups with global opera-
tions, have increased the vulnerability of the chains to
unexpected events [11]. The degree of the vulnerability
of a supply chain is determined to a large extent by the
degree of complexity of the network [13]. Therefore, the
complexity existing in supply chain structure, elaborate
supply chain management, outsourcing of business, and
the instability of the external environment are all depen-
dent on information technology, which all make supply
chains vulnerable to diverse risks.
3. Modeling supply chain complex network
3.1. Basic theory of complex network
A complex network represents a wide range of real-
world systems occurring in nature [17], such as techno-
logical networks, biological networks, social networks,
and the economy, and has been attracting increased inter-
est in recent years. In this section, we developed a
weighted complex network model, and the features of
this weighted model will be discussed further.
A complex network can be represented as a graph
G = (V, E) with a set of vertexes (V) connected by a
set of edges (E). For a weighted network, suppose w is
the correlation between two vertexes and wij represents
the correlation between node i and node j. The weight
of the edges represents the intensity of the connection
between the two vertexes, and higher wij demonstrates
a more intensive connection. Suppose the distance
between node i and j is dij = 1/wij, then a higher weight
of the edge joining node i and j indicates a shorter
 Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering
distance between them. The strength of vertex i is the
sum of the weights of the edges indexed on i:
X
Si Wij
j2Ci
where i is the neighbor vertexes of node i. Point inten-
sity indicates that the node has a point of strength proba-
bility distribution P(s). Shortest paths are used to dene
a measure for topological importance of a node or an
edge, namely the betweenness centrality.
3.2. Modeling the supply chain using a weighted
complex network
In a supply chain network, nodes represent different sub-
jects, which could be the manufacturers, suppliers, retail-
ers, and customers, while the edges represent the
collaboration and competitive relationships among these
subjects. The weights of the edges could be the trading
volume and the strength of a node indicates the impor-
tance of a subject in the supply chain. For example, if a
manufacturer is the only supplier in the world, the corre-
sponding node representing this manufacturer will have
very high strength. This often occurs with key suppliers
who control a core technology. For example, the earth-
quake in Japan has delayed the supply by many Japanese
companies, which in turn has greatly affected the auto-
motive industry worldwide. Even, Chinas local compa-
nies and those of Europe or the United States were
affected in a certain extent. These indicate that the
Japanese automotive suppliers have an important strength
in the supply chain and their disruption could cause the
breakdown of the whole supply chain.
In a traditional complex network, every vertex can
be connected by every other vertex and all the vertexes
have the same nature. In supply chain networks, vertexes
are different from each other due to their represented
subjects, including suppliers, manufacturers, and custom-
ers. The characteristics of these subjects therefore
affected the connections that could occur in the network.
In a supply chain with complex networks, manufac-
turers are hubs and other companies join the network.
The connections among the vertexes are generated based
on their intentions, regardless of the physical distance.
The model is a dynamic network in which edge weights
change as the collaboration intensities change, which in
turn rene the edge weights and affect the overall topo-
logical structures of the network. A model is constructed
as follows:
(1) at t = 0, the network has m0 vertexes and e0
edges,
(2) at every time interval, a new node N joins the
network and connects with the node w in the fol-
lowing ways, where w m0 and depends on N.
(3) If the node N represents a supplier and has a
probability , the probability of node N
223
connecting with node i is a function of the
weights of Si, that is to say:
Y Si
P
j Sj
P
n!i
where si j2V i wij is the sum of all the edges
indexed on node i.
If the node N represents a retailer and has the proba-
bility of 1 .
(4) Suppose is the attraction factor of a node,
reects the quality of products, exchange time,
and service quality. At each time interval, fol-
lowing the joining of a new node N to the net-
work, every node i (including N) in the network
selects m other nodes. The probability that node
i selects node j is
Q s d
Pj s d. If node i selects j but not vice versa,
k
i!j
k6i
the connection between the two will not be established
or the edge weight remains unchanged if there is already
a connection between them. Otherwise, if two nodes
select each other simultaneously, then the edge weight
increases by 1, that is to say:
wij wij 1
Figure 1 is the initial supply chain network with the
manufacturer and the core, and Figure 2 is the model of
supply chain with the manufacturer as the core which has
100 nodes, and Figure 3 is the model of supply chain with
the manufacturer as the core which has 500 nodes whose
weight distribution is shown in Figure 4. As shown by the
tted curve, the weight in a supply chain follows the
power law distribution. That is to say, a node tends to
interact with nodes with higher weights. With the expan-
sion of the network, these nodes will nally have more
connections than the other nodes and are the hubs. But
a weightier node would not passively interact with lighter
nodes and the core enterprise would take all the factors
into consideration, such as the quality of the suppliers
merchandise, services and price, and so on.
As shown in the gure, suppose that the probability
of a new node represents a supplier () is 0.50, the initial
weight of the new node (w0) is 0.10, the initial attraction
Figure 1. Initial supply chain with the manufacturer as the
core.
224 Y.-f. Ma et al.
Figure 2. Model of supply chain with the manufacturer as the
core (100 nodes).
Figure 3. Model of supply chain with the manufacturer as the
core (500 nodes).
Figure 4. Intensity distribution of supply chain network model
(S: strength; P(s): strengths probability distribution).
factor of retailer () is 0.10, and the demise probability
of old links (p) is 0.01.
Supply chain network system constantly changes and
develops new nodes that join the network and some old
nodes that exit the network, which makes the topological
structure evolves continued, that is to say, supply chain
network is dynamic, growth, and merit. In the process of
generation, development and perish of supply chain
network, nodes and links failure will cause changes of
supply chain structure, and reduce the efciency of the
supply chain.
4. Analysis of supply chain disruption risk based on
complex network
4.1. Centrality measurement of network topology
A few network measures have been proposed for
weighted networks, including three common measures of
node centrality: degree, closeness, and betweenness. The
degree of centrality measures the range size of a node
control, the higher the degree centrality of a node, the
more neighbor nodes associated with it in the network.
But only from the value of the node degree, we cannot
accurately reect the importance of the node. Sometimes,
although one node has higher value of degree, but the
nodes connected to it are not important nodes, this node
will not necessarily be important. In contrast, although
the degree value of a node is not higher, but the neigh-
bor nodes which are connecting to the node are impor-
tant nodes, the node in the network is also very
important. That is to say, the node is a bridge to the
whole network. As shown in Figure 5, the value of the
node V7 is only 2, but if the node is removed, the entire
network will be no longer connected, which means that
the network interrupt occurs. Therefore, the importance
of the node needs to be considered from the perspective
of the global information judgment. Betweenness central-
ity is a measure of a nodes centrality in a network equal
to the number of shortest paths from all vertices to all
others that pass through that node. If betweenness cen-
trality of a node is greater, it indicates that there are
more shortest path between any two nodes throughout
the network [17]. Thus, the node is more important in
the network. Betweenness centrality is a more useful
measure of the load placed on the given node in the
network as well as the nodes importance to the network
than just connectivity.
4.2. Key nodes in the complex network
Supply chains consist of many locations, such as suppli-
ers, manufacturers, and vendors, and its disruptions are
never purely local but cascade through the entire supply
chain system. Upstream disruptions will cause down-
stream out-of-stock. A fundamental prerequisite for
improved supply chain resilience is an understanding of
the network that connects the business to its suppliers
and their suppliers and to its downstream customers. The
ability of the network to resist risks is measured by the
V1 V4 V9
V12
V3 V10
V2 V6 V7 V8
V13
V5 V11
Figure 5. Example of network centrality.
 Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering
invulnerability and the invulnerability is related to slow-
ing performance of some edges or nodes in network after
attack. Complex network theory could help to determine
the vulnerability of the nodes, identify the risk-resisting
ability of the entire supply chain network, and optimize
the supply chain network topology by improving the
ability to resist risks, which is realized mainly by pro-
tecting important nodes and temporarily separating them.
Studies on risk-resisting ability generally include ran-
dom attacks and malicious destruction. In supply chain
networks, random attack can be considered to be, for
example, if the supplier quit due to a natural disasters
(or for other reasons). This situation often occurs ran-
domly and it can be seen as a random attack on the net-
work. Malicious destruction can occur if one of the main
suppliers quits due to shortage of funds or because they
are maximizing their own interests and joining another
supply chain network. If these important suppliers (key
nodes) quit from the network, it is bound to be a crush-
ing blow on the enterprises left in the supply chain.
From a complex network perspective, the risk of sup-
ply chain disruptions refers to network non-connectivity,
which leads to the interruption of the supply chain, that
is, supply chain node enterprise exit for some reason or
temporarily unable to supply goods to the downstream
nodes enterprise, or the losses caused by the interruption
which comes from logistics interrupt. Exit or delivery
interruption of node enterprises can be seen as nodes
failure and logistics interruption can be seen as links fail-
ure, which are shown in Figures 6 and 7.
In order to identify the vulnerabilities in a supply
chain network and analyze the risk-resisting ability of
the supply chain network, we must rst nd important
nodes in the entire network and take relevant measures
to protect the important node. In order to nd the key
nodes in the supply chain network, it is necessary to
measure the importance of the nodes in the supply chain
network. Both weight and position of a node are consid-
ered. If the sum value of the weights is larger, the more
closely is the node with other nodes in contact, so that
the node is important; the position of the node indicates
the importance of the node in the entire network. If the
V1
V4
V2
V6
V7
V5
V3
V6
Figure 6. Link failures.
225
V1
V4
V2
V6
V7
V5
V3
V6
Figure 7. Node failures.
more shortest path through the node, the more important
the node is.
If the manufacturers are taken as the core of the net-
work, then suppliers and customers are the network
edge, and this topology of the supply chain is shown in
Figure 8. Firstly, we measure the importance of the sup-
ply chain node in its own area using node strength, that
is, measured from the local area, which showed the
contact tightness with the surrounding nodes. Then, we
measure the important nodes from the structural integrity
of the supply chain network. Specic methods are as
follows:
(1) Nodes in the network are independent. Take the
principles that if the larger weight of a node,
the closer relationship with the neighbor nodes.
The sum of the edges weights is given by:
P
si j2NI wij , and si 2 0; 1, that is to say the more
weight the edge has, the closer the connection with the
neighbor nodes, and if the node was removed, then a
heavier inuence would be placed on the ambient sup-
plier chain enterprise. If just the weight of the factors is
considered, the larger the node weight, the more impor-
tant is the node.
(2) In complex networks, the more shortest path
through the node, the more important nodes
position is, then the node plays a key role in the
connectivity of the whole network. In supply
chain networks, some suppliers nodes strength
value is not so large, but the relative importance
of the location of the nodes in the network. As
the nodes are the bridges in the entire supply
chain, its withdrawal from the supply chain or
interruption will give the entire supply chain a
heavy blow.
As only consider the position of the nodes in the
entire supply chain, from the structural point of view of
the network topology, the value of the weights can be
ignored. In order to calculate simply, set the edge weight
to the same value. Putting all values of the weight which
is connected to node i to 1 and others are constant and
226 Y.-f. Ma et al.

V4

V26

43
V3 35 V23
30

66
V5 V22 V25 V28
58

43
V2

24
V21

75
36
V31

26
30 V6 30 V24
V1 V7 25 V27

54
47
V15 V17

28
22
52

36

50
V30
V9 48
64 V
V18 45 32
V8 38
45 28 V16 V29

36
V11 V10 30

4
65
15

V19 V33 V32 V37

57
V12 37 44

42
V13 45 V36

62
30 V35
V20 20
V14 V34
40
V38 V39

Figure 8. Topology structure of supply chain network.

then the average shortest path of the network will be
changed. If node i is more important, there will be more
shortest path via node i, and decrease the value of the
weight connecting to node i, the average shortest path
of the network will be smaller. The weights decreased
the network structure as shown in Figure, comparing
with the change of mean network shortest path, then the
importance of nodes could be quantied. Normalized
importance of node i can be represented as
Ii 1  li =L, where L is the shortest paths in the initial
state. Rank top 10 important nodes in the supply chain
network; the result is shown in Table 1. This method is
similar to the method of betweenness centrality, but the
computational complexity is much smaller than the
betweenness centrality.
As can be seen from the table, while the weights of
node V15 are smaller, it plays a role as a bridge across
the network; similarly as a key supplier, it also needs to
take protection measures.
4.3. Building the resilient supply chain
Disruptions typically create a bottleneck at one of these
nodes that can, in effect, shutdown the entire supply
chain network. Reducing the risk of interruption of sup-
ply chain network is to optimize the network design, to
improve the elasticity of the supply chain network, to
ensure the rapid recovery of the supply capacity at a crit-
ical node failure, and to take measures against the risk of
interruption of the supply chain network for critical
nodes. So, when the supply chain encounters an interrup-
tion, it can quickly revert to the initial state before the
interruption occurs. The primary premise to enhance the
exibility of the supply chain is to understand the struc-
tural characteristics of the supply chain network, includ-
ing supply chain nodes and the lines between them,
especially the key lines, and this helps to determine the
weak links of the supply chain and the risk factors to the
implementation of monitoring and risk management mea-
sures, so that a network node failure can still maintain
the continued operation of the network. On one hand, it
is necessary to maintain close contact with key suppliers
to learn the suppliers supply capacity, to reduce the
probability of risk occurring by co-operation, and infor-
mation sharing, to strengthen the awareness of risk man-
agement measures, and to make sure that various
enterprises can more clearly understand the changes in
the supply chain risk through information sharing and

Table 1. The sort of 10 important nodes in the supply chain network.

No. ID The node strength values sort ID Average shortest path change sort
1 V18 2.29 V18 0.2659
2 V8 1.76 V16 0.2266
3 V10 1.53 V8 0.2181
4 V33 1.52 V17 0.1716
5 V21 1.5 V33 0.1565
6 V27 1.47 V15 0.1557
7 V16 1.32 V7 0.1410
8 V29 1.27 V35 0.0951
9 V17 1.25 V10 0.0729
10 V7 1.15 V27 0.0709
 Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering
exchange of the supply chain. On the other hand, to
enhance the elasticity of supply chain networks in the
risk of downtime occurs by selecting a key node in
multi-source suppliers and safety stock strategy. In order
to improve the elasticity of the supply chain network, it
should at least have a backup supplier to maintain a rea-
sonable level of stock.
To reduce the disruptions, the chains vulnerabilities
and bottlenecks, where there is a limit of capacity and
where alternative options may not be available, e.g. ports
capable of taking large container vessels or central distri-
bution facilities which identify potential weaknesses and
key suppliers in their supply chain, should be addressed
[14], and the network that connects the business to its sup-
pliers and their suppliers and to its downstream customers
should be mapped. Resilience can be achieved either
through redundancy to the key suppliers or keeping a high
level of collaborative working to the key suppliers includ-
ing monitoring their nancial and operational health and
even working with them to reduce their vulnerabilities.
From complex network perspective, supply chain
disruption risk model design is based on two
considerations: In the case of supply chain disruption
risk model, we optimaly design the supply chain model
based on the principle of exibility. In order to identify
the key nodes and critical path in supply chain, the char-
acteristics of supply chain network structure should be
understood rstly, then determine the vulnerabilities in
the supply chain, and take measures to enhance the anti-
risk ability of the entire supply chain. In the case of
existing supply chain disruption risk model, the main
task is to protect the model of supply chain, that is to
say, to protect the selected appropriate nodes from the
supply chain and then to enhance the reliability of the
existing supply chain system. Core suppliers are the one
on which the company chooses to depend not only for
parts but also for innovation; the supplier network needs
to include backup suppliers, so that the company can
nd an alternative source quickly, should one of its
vendors become problematic [16].
5. Conclusions
Through the modeling and simulation, we could con-
clude that the supply chain network system constantly
changes and develops new nodes that join the network
and some old nodes that exit the network, which makes
the topological structure evolves continued, that is to
say, supply chain network is dynamic, growing, and
merit. In the process of generation, development, and
perish of supply chain network, nodes and links failure
will cause changes of supply chain structure and reduce
the efciency of the supply chain.
Thus, in the management of supply chain disruption
risk, the ability of resisting the risks of supply chain
could be improved by protecting and splitting key nodes,
in order to nd the key nodes in supply chain network;
227
it is necessary to measure the importance of the nodes in
the supply chain network, and then supply chain risk
managers can easily discover which suppliers are
strongly interconnected (critical) [18]. Disruption risks in
supply chain could be managed by working closely with
key node enterprises and improvement of network resil-
ience and exibility can be achieved through the use of
a multi-skilled workforce, versatile equipment, and the
development of closer relationships with suppliers and
customers to accommodate last-minute changes.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Professor Chih-Hsing Chu for
offering precious inspiration, and wish to thank Mr Will Denny
for his translation contributions to this paper.
Notes on contributors
Yong-fei Ma, a PhD student of School of Economics and
management, Hebei University of Technology, has been
working in the World Customs Organization Asia Pacic
Intelligence Liaison Ofce in Beijing since March 2010. He
was actively involved in international cooperation, training and
research while serving in China Customs service.
Li-wen Chen, Shao-dong Meng, and Cong-qin Yi are all profes-
sors in Chinese universities, who are very specialized in supply
chain operational improvement and technology initiatives.
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