During the first reporting period, the Supply Chain Resilience Fit model was created. The concept of fit helps to understand how different strategic actions – activities, strategies, capabilities, business areas, among others – taken by SC actors are aligned with its ecosystem’s characteristics, thus leading to improvements in actors’ performance. Fit ends up in a “matching” perspective, linking context variables (inherent characteristics of ecosystems) with intervention variables (strategies and actions that can be adjusted by supply chain actors). In the Supply Chain Resilience Fit model, the context variables take the form of the resilience indicators and the critical factors, and intervention variables include supply chain design, supply chain strategies, as well as resilience capabilities.
This Supply Chain Resilience Fit model has been validated by the selected ecosystems – i.e. Digital, Textile, Agrifood and Mobility – Transport - Automotive, priorly characterized by the project, providing the mapping of identified risk-driven supply chain models to the targeted industrial ecosystems, while defining their drivers and challenges. It also encompasses the readiness and responsiveness of supply chains towards disruptive events and enhanced resilience.
Building upon this, RISE-SME has developed quantitative supply chain models focused on the four industrial ecosystems. The project has first developed a comprehensive methodology for the delimitation, selection, development, and further use of the supply chain models, as well as the actual development of the models and the implementation of detailed information in each one of the ecosystems.
RISE-SME proposes advanced technologies as the main enablers for acquiring resilience capabilities. Indeed, the project has identified up-and-coming technologies that can build supply chain resilience. Among others, advanced analytics, particularly AI-driven techniques, data spaces, digital twins, robotics, IoT, blockchain, AR/VR solutions, B2B digital platforms and edge computing are at the forefront of this transformation. This analysis has been followed by an impact assessment of digital technologies on supply chain resilience, introducing a structured methodology that combines scenario-based modelling, a multi-dimensional KPI framework, and simulations to evaluate how specific technologies can mitigate the effects of disruptions. Four disruption scenarios were defined (energy instability, cyber threats, geopolitical volatility, and social (human-centric) risks), each mapped to the ecosystem where its impact was most critical.
The insights generated in this first periodic report provide a foundation for future RISE-SME activities, where the focus will shift to identifying technological gaps, assessing resilience KPIs in greater depth, and creating alliances to increase technology adoption by SMEs. This work will support the development of a decision-support system that will enable SMEs to increase their supply chain resilience.
