Supply chain risk management in the electronics industry

The study on supply chain risk management has shown that the supply chain risk management is a particularly important and urgent issue in the industry. Especially in the electronics industry with its strong OEMs and weak suppliers the supply chain risk management should be a standardized method in a company and therefore needs to be taken into account. Companies increasingly recognize the importance of supply chain risk management, due to globalization and the associated increasing distribution of value-added activities, as well as the expansion and the growing complexity of the supply chains. The study also shows that supply chain risk management must analyze and be based upon both strategic and operational risks. Another interesting finding of the study is that the quality of supply chain risk management decreases with a shrinking vertical range of manufacture, and also that the process quality along the supply chain is reduced on the way to the end consumer. This is an important discovery for the electronics industry, since the distribution of value added and the vertical range of manufacture among the supply chain partners is low in the electronics industry. It has to be said that future research about the topic of supply chain risk management should focus on broadly based case studies conducted in the European Union and the other economic areas for significant, transnational equation. The developed process model has to be mitigated to other industries and branches. Therefore, future research will be concentrated on the development of methods for a process model that can be used and implemented in any industry and industrial sector. The described process model was developed to help SMEs in the electronics industry to evaluate the criticality of their supply chains. The methodology and the process model provide a systematic procedure that supports companies to minimize risks, enables companies to enhance their performance thanks to more stable supply chains, increases the productivity of companies by reducing the supply-related waiting times, and supports companies to increase their competitiveness based on a stabilized supply chain. Supply Chain risk management will be a key success factor for companies in a globalized world if they have implemented a risk management process in their organizational structure