Developing a Resilient, Robust and Efficient Supply Network in Africa

Abstract: Supply chains need to balance competing objectives; in addition to efficiency they need to be resilient to adversarial and environmental interference, and robust to uncertainties in long term demand. Significant research has been conducted designing efficient supply chains, and recent research has focused on resilient supply chain design. However, the integration of resilient and robust supply chain design is less well studied. This paper develops a method to include resilience and robustness into supply chain design. Using the region of West Africa, which is plagued with persisting logistical issues, we develop a regional risk assessment framework, then apply categorical risk to the countries of West Africa using publicly available data. Next, we develop a mathematical model leveraging this framework to design a resilient supply network that minimizes cost while ensuring the network functions following a disruption. Finally, we examine the network's robustness to demand uncertainty via several plausible emergency scenarios.