Complex Supply Chains and Sustainable Development

Based on the last post, supply chain is a complex system because:

1) It constitutes of several heterogeneous components (agents) which are usually referred to ‘supply chain design’ or ‘supply chain statics’.
Such components can be focal companies, suppliers, customers (B2B and B2C), distribution centers (terminals, hubs, consolidation centers, etc.), warehouses, retailers (outlets), transport actors, logistics service providers, resources (both tangible and intangible), goods (materials, packages, inventories, products, etc.), humans, and so on.

2) There are tremendous interactions among its components (agents) which are usually referred to ‘supply chain operations’ or ‘supply chain dynamics’. Interactions create flows in the chain, namely flows of information, goods (including packages), resources, and money.
Due to dynamic, diverse, and nonlinear interactions, supply chain (s) is (are) preferably called supply network (s). Due to such interactions, demarcation of / defining border for the system is very difficult.

3) Each sub-component (sub-agent) of supply chain components (agents) is a complex system by itself which may have an attribute of complexity or just complication (I will explain the difference of these attributes in another post).
For example, a focal company is by itself a complex system. It may constitute of several assembly lines, work stations, resources (staffs, tools, assets …), departments, and so on and so forth.

4) It may respond to different markets in different ways. Because of different values in different markets, different action/reaction strategies are required. Values can be time, cost, quality, environmentally friendliness, etc.

As supply chain is a complex system, its sustainable development call for complexity thinking. In whole of my PhD program, I will do my best to preserve my complexity glasses on my eyes when I study sustainable development of supply chains and packaging logistics.

For the integration of sustainable development into supply chain management to become reality, models and perspectives in which comprehension, not elimination or reduction, of the emergent complexity needs to be explored, developed, and used.
Concluding, there is great need for models and frameworks that consider the complexity and paradoxes involved, take holistic perspectives, and challenge the basic assumptions underlying most of the research published (i.e. reductionism, positivism and economic growth).