Handling Supply Chain Crises when everything has been done to avoid them

ABSTRACT

Supplier relationship management is a key issue in Supply Chain Quality Management. This article aims to address such relationship in crisis situation. Crisis situation generate tense relationship within the Supply Chain and reveal the ability of organisations to manage quality. In the literature, there are models of crisis management as well as studies on high reliability organisations that are reducing risks to the minimum. There are however only few studies on crisis management by companies who do everything to avoid crisis.

The present study is based on a five case study in a high reliability industry: aerospace. Assumptions from the literature have been tested with managers in this industry and lead towards a model of crisis management involving a network approach of the suppliers. This model is inductive and could be applicable in this industry and maybe other industries by professionals.

KEYWORDS:

• Supply chain
• crisis
• quality
• network
• resilience
• aerospace
• high reliability organization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maria Desoutter

Maria Desoutter graduated from the MBA program in Organizational Management by Project, at the École de Management de Normandie, France in 2016. During the various positions she has held in international companies, she has practiced the anticipation and the management of numerous Supply Crises. In 2011, she joined Safran Nacelles Company, a world leader in aircraft engine nacelles. Her current professional activities are directly linked to the Supply Chain Management. As Industrial Manager, she is taking care of the internal and external supply for SAM146 Program, and is constantly looking for continuous improvement in this area.

Alexandre Lavissière

Alexandre Lavissière is an Assistant Professor at École de Management de Normandie. He teaches in the fields of Logistics, Transportation, Supply Chain, International Business and Strategy. He obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. in Management from Kedge Business School. His research interests are in International Trade, Logistics and Transportation, and more specifically Free Ports, Dry Ports, Port Management, Port Marketing and Airport Handling. He has been a consultant in strategy for almost fifteen years for several companies and international institutions in more than 20 countries. He has participated and managed research projects for several governments, the World Bank and mineral companies. For two years, he was in charge of research projects at the Institute of Port Education and Research (IPER), Le Havre, France.