Title: Supply chains risks: an interpretative structural modelling approach

Authors: Bupe Getrude Mwanza; Arnesh Telukdarie

Addresses: Graduate School of Engineering Management, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa; Johannesburg Business School, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa ' Graduate School of Engineering Management, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa; Johannesburg Business School, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

Abstract: As plastic manufacturing companies operate in a global environment, supply chain risks (SCR) become more unpredictable. Therefore, one of the pressing issues in the plastic manufacturing sector is identifying and prioritising the numerous risks for operating in a competitive business environment. Using interpretative structural modelling (ISM), the research illustrates, how managers in the plastic manufacturing industry can establish and apprehend interdependencies among the possible SCR. Interdependencies among the risks are attained and structured hierarchically in order to attain subsystems of interdependent elements that have representative driving power and dependency power. Next, the research assesses the mitigation strategies for addressing the numerous SCR. The ISM model established provides extensive insight for assisting managers to deal with the SCR while categorisation proves to be a relevant tool for differentiating between independent and dependent elements that can enable the managers to focus on key elements for minimising risk within the supply chain networks.

Keywords: interpretative structural modelling; ISM; decision-making; supply chain risks; SCR; modelling; mitigation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSCOR.2022.123909

International Journal of Supply Chain and Operations Resilience, 2022 Vol.5 No.2, pp.217 - 234

Received: 28 Oct 2021
Accepted: 05 Mar 2022
Published online: 04 Jul 2022 *