Jan Husdal
3
INTRODUCTION
Transportation networks like freeways and interstate highways are the main backbone of modernsociety and play an important role in supply chains. Consequently then, the reliability of thetransportation network or the reliability of supply chains is thus a decisive factor not only in terms of market outreach and competition, but also in terms of continuity, to ensure a 24/7 operation of thecommunity we live in. Any threat to the reliability of the transportation network constitutes avulnerable spot, a weakness in the supply chain.This vulnerability of the transportation network as part of the supply chain is of particularinterest in countries or regions with sparsely populated areas, and hence, a sparse transportationnetwork. Typically traits of such regions are few transportation mode options and/or fewtransportation link options for each transportation mode, for example maybe only one railway line andtwo roads, no port, no airport. It should not come as a surprise then that the nature of sparsetransportation networks, and thus sparse supply chains, makes them vulnerable to many different kindsof internal and external risks. With only a few transportation modes and links available betweenpopulation centers, these population centers become extremely vulnerable to any disruption in thetransportation system or supply chain, since in a possible worst-case scenario no suitable alternativeexists for deliveries to or from these communities.
From
the community is as important as
to
the community, since the supply chain goes bothways, meaning that no goods or supplies can come in and no manufactured goods or supplies tocompanies in other locations can leave. Few will question that the sender, the recipient, the freighthauler, or society at large, experience additional costs when goods or people cannot reach theirdestinations in time or in space. A non-functioning, or at best, badly-functioning link will impose costson the user in terms of loss of time, additional operation costs or other costs as a result of delays anddiversions. Transporters of perishable goods will also experience a loss of value.The question then arises, are businesses located in regions with sparse transportation networksin fact more prone to supply chain disruptions than businesses located in transportation-wise morefavorable locations? Does the sparse transportation network influence the setup of the supply chain?Does a sparse transportation network in fact constrain the supply chain setup, such that it deviatesfrom the ideal and thus is more vulnerable and more likely to be disrupted?This paper will not attempt to answer these questions but synthesize some of the recentliterature on supply chain risk and apply it in a transportation vulnerability setting, and point towardssome potentially interesting alleys for future research.As supply chains grow more and more complex and intertwined, special consideration shouldbe given to the notion in
(1)
that “should systemic financial risk lead to a serious deterioration in theworld economy, the prospects for collaborative (risk) mitigation may be reversed on several frontssimultaneously as attention turns to more immediate concerns.” This could imply that supply chaindisruptions are likely to increase in the near future, as companies are struggling to keep themselvesand governments are struggling to keep the national economies afloat, thus jeopardizing collaborativeefforts in supply chain risk management, which at present may seem less important than the immediateeconomic concerns.
TRANSPORTATION NETWORK VULNERABILITY ANDSPARSE TRANSPORTATION NETWORKS
The vulnerability of transportation networks is a subject that has received increased interest within theacademic community in recent years
(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)
, and has been the topic of several internationalconferences, most notably Taking up the invitation in
(5)
to bring out and recognize the vulnerabilityin the road transportation system as a meeting point for all the different strands of transportationreliability research and other issues (p.127), the focal point of this paper is to look at the importance of transportation networks from a supply chain perspective, and how companies my overcome thedisadvantages of unfavourable locations.
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This paper relate to my PhD research strongly. Could you please to share it with me. Thanks a lot
Thank you very much