Risk assessment in multimodal supply chains

Complexity and disintegration are emerging as major challenges in supply-chain risk management. It has become more difficult to identify risks as supply-chain operations have fallen into the hands of outside service providers, and are therefore less visible. The risks, their identification and impact depend on the position of the companies in the chain, and on the level of analysis they can carry out. In this paper we present preliminary research concepts and findings concerning the identification and analysis of risks in multimodal supply chains. Our research approach is holistic, and incorporates perspectives from different parts of the chain. The multimodal maritime supply chain in focus runs from the Gulf of Finland to the Finnish mainland. We map the process and the structure, and present a new framework for categorizing the risks in terms of their driver factors in order to assess the overall impact on the performance of the supply chain. Finally, we analyze the risk impacts in terms of delays in the chain by means of Monte-Carlo-based simulation. (c) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.