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1. Stress Testing for Resilience of Semiconductor Supply Chains

   https://doi.org/10.1109/UEMCON59035.2023.10315988  

   Collier, Zachary A; Loose, Davis C; Sellers, Elvie; Polmateer, Thomas L; Behl, Madhur; Linkov, Igor; Lambert, James H (October 2023, IEEE)

   na (Ed.)

   The supply chains of semiconductors and integrated devices supports industry across all economic sectors. Globally, the supply chain is experiencing a variety of stressors and disruptions, with effects that cascade across the economy, causing product delays and enterprise losses. However, quantitative models that support an understanding of how stressors influence supply chain performance are needed. Here we show how stress testing can be used for assessing the impact of disruptions on supply chain performance metrics and for characterizing system resilience. We demonstrate a framework that utilizes discrete event simulation for stress testing the resilience of a semiconductor supply chain. Our results include a comparison of resilience curves with and without risk management countermeasures, showing the resilience-enhancing benefits of various supply chain management strategies such as maintaining safety stock and sourcing from multiple suppliers. Supply chain managers can utilize stress testing principles and methodologies to configure their supply chain and engage in practices that contribute to system resilience. 

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2. Cooperating With “Open Cards”—The Role of Small Intermediary Businesses in Realizing Sustainable International Coffee Supply

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2021.663716  

   Weber, Hanna; Wiek, Arnim (July 2021, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems)

   Despite improvements, international food supply in general and coffee supply in particular continue to cause significant greenhouse gas emissions, economic inequities, and negative impacts on human well-being. There is agreement that dominant economic paradigms need to change to comply with the sustainability principles of environmental integrity, economic resilience, and social equity. However, so far, little empirical evidence has been generated to what extent and under which conditions sustainable international coffee supply could be realized through small intermediary businesses such as roasteries, breweries, and/or retailers. This case study reports on a collaborative project between a small coffee brewery and its customers in the U.S. and a small coffee roastery and its suppliers in Mexico that demonstrates how sustainable coffee supply could look like and explores under which conditions it can be realized. A research team facilitated the cooperation using a transdisciplinary research approach, including field visits and stakeholder workshops. The project (i) assessed the sustainability challenges of the current supply and value chains; (ii) developed a vision of a joint sustainable coffee supply chain; (iii) build a strategy to achieve this vision, and (iv) piloted the implementation of the strategy. We discuss the project results against the conditions for sustainable international coffee supply offered in the literature (why they were fulfilled, or not). Overall, the study suggests that small intermediary coffee businesses might have the potential to infuse sustainability across their supply chain if cooperating with “open cards.” The findings confirm some and add some conditions, including economic resilience through cooperation, problem recognition, transparency, trust, and solidarity across the supply chain. The study concludes with reflections on study limitations and future research needs. 

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3. ReSpool : Scaling a circular supply chain for recycled textiles

   https://doi.org/10.1002/amp2.70000  

   Thomas, Kedron; Clarke‐Sather, Abigail_R; Cobb, Kelly; Cao, Huantian (February 2025, Journal of Advanced Manufacturing and Processing)

   Abstract ReSpool is a transdisciplinary partnership among academia, government, industry, and nonprofit entities created in 2022 to develop and demonstrate a transferable model for the recycling of postconsumer textile and apparel waste into new textile products. ReSpool's engineering and creative teams have innovated proprietary technologies including the Fiber Shredder, which enables textile‐to‐fiber shredding for high‐value applications, and a set of processes for the manufacture of yarns and nonwoven textiles from recycled fibers. ReSpool's circular supply chains begin with discarded clothing collected by Goodwill organizations in the two test regions and involves partnerships with Goodwill to recruit and train workers and install in‐house recycling operations. ReSpool then works with textile manufacturers and home goods and apparel retailers on high‐value applications through waste‐led materials and product development. ReSpool takes a systems‐based approach to sustainability research and problem‐solving. This article briefly overviews the “systems thinking” framework and demonstrates how core principles of this framework structure the team's objectives, activities, and innovations. Finally, the article contributes to current debates regarding systems thinking and circularity by presenting a rationale for systems‐based sustainability research and practice ratcheted to regional systems. By focusing on regional factors, connections, and opportunities, ReSpool aims to maximize its flexibility, relevance, and impact while enabling tailored replication of the model across diverse communities. In this way, ReSpool offers an innovative, circular materials model for the textile and apparel industries, turning textile waste into a source of business innovation, sustainable economic development, and skills training for communities across the country. 

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4. Towards ethical and resilient agricultural supply chains: interdicting labor trafficking and mitigating disruptions

   https://doi.org/10.17760/D20705224  

   Jafari, Arezoo (December 2024, Northeastern University Digital Repository Service)

   The food and agriculture industries are critical to the U.S. economy, ensuring the daily food supply while facing significant challenges. These issues include ethical concerns related to labor exploitation and the need to improve resilience against disruptions. Addressing these issues offers an opportunity to create supply chains that are both more ethical and more resilient. This dissertation focuses on two interconnected aspects of agricultural supply chains. The first examines strategies for disrupting exploitative labor practices and ensuring better protection for farm workers. The second explores methods to enhance the resilience of ethical supply chains against various disruptions, including natural disasters and labor shortages. Together, these aspects aim to contribute to the development of agricultural supply chains that are both ethically sound and resilient to disruptions. Although farm workers play an essential role in the success of these industries, they are vulnerable to labor exploitation and trafficking. Labor violations affecting these workers often go undetected due to limited government resources for inspection. Furthermore, many farm workers face barriers to disclosing their poor working conditions due to their immigration status and mistrust of law enforcement, making them even more susceptible to exploitation. To address this issue, we conducted research to provide strategies for government agencies involved in the H-2A visa program and the screening of H-2A employers to prioritize workplaces for inspection. In the first study, we employed multilevel zero-inflated negative binomial regression analysis to extract patterns and identify factors correlated with detecting H-2A labor violations. We provide suggestions for improving inspection strategies based on our research results. This involved identifying high-risk locations and labor-intensive worksites with a greater likelihood of labor violations and emphasizing the importance of allocating sufficient task force funding and resources to prioritize inspections in these areas. Labor trafficking networks in U.S. agricultural supply chains exploit vulnerable workers, including migrants and unauthorized laborers, while evading detection through complex structures, making them difficult to disrupt. In the second study, we developed a comprehensive labor trafficking network model that maps the intricate connections and operations of these networks. Using a bi-level integer programming approach, we optimized intervention strategies to disrupt trafficking operations, balancing resource constraints with the need for maximum impact. By employing K-means clustering, we classified interventions based on their effectiveness, providing clear, data-driven guidance for anti-trafficking agencies to prioritize efforts and allocate resources efficiently. This approach offers a powerful tool for enhancing detection and improving the overall effectiveness of anti-trafficking initiatives in limited resource environments. The importance of food and agricultural supply chains in our daily lives cannot be emphasized enough. While the prior two studies sought to disrupt exploitative work conditions in agricultural supply chains, this dissertation also seeks to help supply chains that are operating ethically do so in an effective manner. Any disruption in these chains can lead to severe consequences, from food shortages to economic instability. Therefore, it is critical to develop effective strategies to mitigate the impact of disruptions in these non-exploitative supply chains. In the third study, we developed a scenario-based two-stage stochastic model to mitigate the impact of multiple disruptions in agricultural supply chains. This approach enables a detailed evaluation of strategies such as multi-sourcing and the use of backup facilities to reduce disruption impacts. The model incorporates flexibility to handle both partial and full facility disruptions, while accounting for disruptions affecting both primary and backup facilities to provide a comprehensive analysis of supply chain vulnerability and recovery. By employing a multi-period time horizon, the model evaluates supply chain performance over time, considering random disruption start times and the possibility of simultaneous disruptions across multiple echelons with varying severity. The analysis highlights the challenges posed by multiple sources of uncertainty in supply chain decision-making and emphasizes the need for further research to develop actionable strategies for improving resilience in agricultural supply chains. 

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5. Disruption and Rerouting in Supply Chain Networks

   https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.2022.2409  

   Birge, John R.; Capponi, Agostino; Chen, Peng-Chu (December 2022, Operations Research)

   We study systemic risk in a supply chain network where firms are connected through purchase orders. Firms can be hit by cost or demand shocks, which can cause defaults. These shocks propagate through the supply chain network via input-output linkages between buyers and suppliers. Firms endogenously take contingency plans to mitigate the impact generated from disruptions. We show that, as long as firms have large initial equity buffers, network fragility is low if both buyer diversification and supplier diversification are low. We find that a single-sourcing strategy is beneficial for a firm only if the default probability of the firm’s supplier is low. Otherwise, a multiple-sourcing strategy is ex post more cost effective for a firm. Funding: J.R. Birge acknowledges financial support from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. The research of A. Capponi has been supported by the NSF/CMMI CAREER-1752326 award. P.-C. Chen acknowledges financial support from the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong [Early Career Scheme Grant 27210118]. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.2022.2409 . 

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