Title: Vulnerability of interaction-based supply chain network and its self-organised criticality

Authors: Renbin Xiao; Shanshan Xie; Tinggui Chen

Addresses: School of Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, China ' School of Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, China ' College of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310018, China

Abstract: With the increasing complexity of the supply chain, it brings benefits as well as increasing vulnerability to the supply chain. Research on the cause and characteristic of vulnerability is prerequisite for effective management measures. First, a supply chain network model based on Poisson distribution and preference selection mechanism is established, of which the interactions are further studied. On this basis, the cascading failure process of supply chain network i analysed, and then the impact of supply chain network topology on the system vulnerability and the determination of node vulnerability are further discussed. Finally, an example of certain automotive group supply chain is used to verify the effectiveness and practicality of this method. The study finds that the root of supply network vulnerability lies in cascading failure and there is a certain power-law relationship between its scale and frequency, namely supply chain network owns self-organised criticality, which affects the vulnerability of supply chain network. Meanwhile, the node vulnerability assessment method could provide an effective basis for taking effective preventive measures.

Keywords: supply chain network; vulnerability analysis; interactions; cascading failure; self-organised criticality; SOC.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCSM.2017.085842

International Journal of Computing Science and Mathematics, 2017 Vol.8 No.4, pp.324 - 341

Received: 03 Jan 2015
Accepted: 16 Mar 2015
Published online: 16 Aug 2017 *

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