Tackling Disruptions in Supply Chain Networks Through Resilient, Sustainable and Innovative Methods and Practices

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid growth of e-commerce, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has placed substantial pressure on supply chain operations and transportation infrastructure, often leading to failures or disruptions. The supply chain is not only disrupted by seasonal fluctuations such as demand spikes during events (e.g., Black Friday, Cyber Monday) but also by unpredictable incidents like climate change, cyberattacks, or global crises, which critically undermine supply chain resilience. In response to these challenges, companies tend to adopt emerging technologies as well as innovative practices and business models to enhance their efficiency and tackle these challenges. Interestingly, recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT) applications, and blockchain technology have enabled innovative solutions that can potentially improve the efficiency of different processes within a supply chain (e.g., inventory management, demand forecasting, transportation planning, warehouse optimization, data security, dynamic vehicle/robot/drone routing). The industry leaders often uptake innovative solutions and apply practices to tackle or mitigate disruptions in supply chains (e.g., predictive analytics, optimizing inventory location, anticipatory shipping). Apart from the implementation of innovative solutions, the adoption of new, sustainable, and smart business models is crucial for companies enhancing their resilience. For example, collaborative business models support a paradigm of resources and operations sharing between multiple stakeholders which promotes resilience and flexibility towards disruptions and changing market conditions and networks.

This Special Issue aims to investigate the integration of resilient, sustainable, and innovative practices within supply chains to enhance operational efficiency and infrastructure robustness. We invite contributions from scholars and practitioners interested to explore beyond the traditional supply chain management approaches to tackle these challenges through technological advancements and collaborative strategies by addressing one or more of the following topics:

• Global supply chain crisis management;
• blockchain for secure supply chains;
• disruption management in supply chains;
• weather-related disruptions in supply chain operations and infrastructure;
• resilient global supply strategies;
• supply chain disaster recovery;
• IoT supply chain monitoring;
• multi-stakeholder supply partnerships;
• designing and assessing supply chain resilience;
• cloud-based supply collaboration;
• AI in demand forecasting;
• smart inventory control;
• warehouse robotics and automation;
• smart crew scheduling and rostering;
• resource planning for disruption management;
• predictive logistics maintenance;
• green logistics innovations;
• AI-driven logistics optimization;
• collaborative logistics models;
• combined freight transport planning;
• dynamic routing optimization;
• omni-channel supply resilience;
• predictive shipping analytics;
• physical internet and sustainability;
• energy-efficient freight transport solutions;
• circular economy in supply chains;
• innovative approaches towards supply chain resilience and sustainability;
• Logistics 4.0 for agile supply chains.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Vasilis Zeimpekis
Dr. Michael A. Madas
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• supply chain
• disruption management
• resilience
• sustainability
• disaster recovery
• crisis management