Supply chain resilience from an outsourcing perspective: A critical literature review and research agenda on 3PL network design strategies and supporting quantitative optimization methods

Complex networks of suppliers, customers and third party service providers, as well as,large interdependencies among multiple organizations make inter-organizational coordination of risks a critical requirement. In the last 20 years, supply chain management practices have been developed toward more lean process approaches, in order to increase supply chain effectiveness by reducing costs and eliminating inefficiencies. On the contrary, the increasingly dynamic and volatile market environment has elevated the importance of handling risks that can emerge from the customers or demand side, the suppliers’ side, manufacturing processes and control systems. In such a context the supply chain capability to assure continuity can be expressed in terms of resilience. Resilience is a new approach to the design of supply chains and business processes. It is derived fromthe study of resilience in biological systems, which have a variety of mechanisms forsensing and responding to disturbances or threats. Efforts to identify and mitigate supply chain risks have traditionally focused on operational risks and familiar sources of potential disruption that have caused trouble in the past. However, risks are constantly evolving and can strike from almost anywhere, including sources that are new and unexpected. In addition, as soon as more companies are outsourcing their supply chains to 3PLs to focus on their core competences, at the same time, supply chain risks and uncertainties are also shifted to 3PLs. Therefore, the primary objective of the paper is to look on research considerations regarding the development of resilient 3PL supply chain networks through the utilization of OR/MS methods. After extensive literature review a framework is developed for better understanding of effectiveness, disturbances and resilience in supply chain designing process from a 3PL perspective. Additionally, the study adds to the literature by offering a future research agenda.