Alternatives for securing critical supply - Emergency supply of manufactured parts in crises

Other conference contribution, 2025

Purpose
When faced with severe crises or war, Swedish authorities need to adaptively secure supply of critical components for their operations. They are in this dependent on industry’s production system and supply chain (SC) network. When critical shortages occur, alternatives need to be investigated and developed quickly. This paper aims to present a methodology and way of work to review SC alternatives and developing solutions when an acute shortage is at hand.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents action-research based work, performed within a project developing resilient SC-management. An iterative scenario workshop approach was applied to develop and test the methodology. The workshops were performed in a simulated crisis-situation setting. Participating authorities oversaw infrastructural functions and a simulated component shortage, while a cross functional team of researchers and experts applied the methods to find solutions to the situation. The workshop goal was to find and develop several parallel solutions to each shortage situation. Between workshops, literature search, discussion and trials with practitioners, and cross functional process development was done.
Findings
The findings resulted in a guideline for the process from identifying a need to initiating parallel solutions to resolve a shortage. Available materials, production techniques, and critical product-specific characteristics were identified and investigated within the workshops. The solutions were based on four main redesign concepts:
•Re-sourcing/Sourcing of equivalent product(s)
•Reuse via washing/repair/recycling
•Reverse engineering - copying existing product
•Product development - developing a new product
Research limitations
The conducted workshops were designed with predefined specific conditions, such as national localization for solution application, logistical challenges, and import restrictions.
Practical, managerial and societal implications
The research was part of a larger research project where the aim was to support Swedish authorities in their development of resilience and security of supply. Both practical results and methodological development of how to perform supply chain scenario workshop simulations will be used by authorities.
Original/value
There exist several studies on how to proactively redesign supply chains to be more resilient, but less papers focus on how to redesign the supply when shortage occurs in crisis situations. This paper contributes with empirical research on such situations.