Analysis of vulnerabilities in maritime supply chains

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the different concepts of "vulnerability" used in maritime supply chains, and to develop a novel framework with supporting models to identify and analyze the relevant vulnerabilities in the chains. A real case of the Maersk shipping line in its Asia-Europe route is studied to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed framework. We find that the investigated network has stronger robustness against random failures than that when facing deliberate attacks. Furthermore, to identify vulnerable nodes (i.e. ports) of the network, two different types of analysis are undertaken through a multicentrality model and a robustness analysis model, respectively. Consequently, the vulnerabilities estimated through robustness analysis can ascertain those by the classical centrality methods when they appear on both analysis results. More importantly, the similarity between the two outcomes can help gain more confidence on the accuracy in terms of the identification of the vulnerabilities in the system, while the difference (if any) such as those identified by the robustness analysis but not by the centrality analysis (or vice versa) can trigger a further investigation to find the comprehensive vulnerable nodes against different threats/hazards. It will aid rational decision on design and operation of resilient and robust maritime supply chains.

Novel Approach for Comprehensive Centrality Assessment of Ports along the Maritime Silk Road

“…This will inevitably lead to a relatively large deviation between the calculated results and the actual situations, as the information provided by a single centrality does not reflect the overview of the entire shipping network. To measure the overall impact of the port and rank it according to the summary information of different centrality indicators, this paper integrates the results from different centrality measures by scoring them using a Borda Count method (18)(19)(20). The Borda Count method is a voting method in which candidates are ranked in order of priority (21).…”

“…In this study, the vulnerability of the MSR shipping network is investigated as a validation of the results obtained from the proposed multi-centrality method, in which centrality indicates the extent of the middle of ports, whereas vulnerability reflects the impact of ports on the functionality of a shipping network. They reflect the importance of a port from different angles ( 26 ). Different metrics have been proposed to measure the drop of network performance in relation to a network’s vulnerability including global network efficiency ( 27 ), average shortest distance ( 28 ), and the size of the largest connected subgraph ( 29 ).…”

The effect of supply chain management practices on supply chain and manufacturing firms’ performance

“…Supply chain vulnerability as a concept within supply chain risk management literature remains inconclusive as it varies with regards to its research contexts, definition and framework (Liu et al, 2018). Most studies, present supply chain vulnerability as an elusive concept that occurs through certain traits of a supply chain, such as its design and the environment in which the supply chain exists.…”

Evaluating recovery strategies for the disruptions in liner shipping networks: a resilience approach

“…The concept of vulnerability was first proposed by Timmerman (1981), who described vulnerability as the severity of adverse consequences caused by disruptive events. The concepts of the term “vulnerability” evolve in different research contexts (Liu et al , 2018b), including (1) the opposite perspective of the concept “network robustness”, (2) the importance of elements (i.e. “vulnerability index”) and (3) node dependence.…”