Sustainable supply chain
With emphasis on sustainable supply chain management (SCM), aerospace supply chains are reconfiguring themselves to fit into government regulatory policies, observes A Framework for Managing Risks in the Aerospace Supply Chain using Systems Thinking research paper — authored by Abhijeet Ghadge, Samir Dani and Roy Kalawsky — mentions a few concepts to achieve a balance between demand and supply and thus create sustainability.
Postponement strategies utilise product and process design concepts such as standardisation, commonality, and modular design to delay the point of product differentiation, the authors note, for example. “This helps to reduce risks and stock in the system. It is a mass customisation tool to handle demand fluctuating market like the one observed in aerospace supply chain systems.” Another concept discussed in the paper is that of the strategic stock, that is, safety stock of critical components to ensure that the supply chain continues to function smoothly while facing disturbances. “This could be best utilised in case of environmental risk arising out of natural or man-made disasters like floods, hurricanes, terrorist attacks etc.”