Augmenting supply chain resilience through AI and big data

Purpose

Natural calamities like earthquakes, floods and epidemics/pandemics like COVID-19 significantly disrupt almost all the supply networks, ranging from medicines to numerous daily/emergency use items. Supply Chain Resilience is one such option to overcome the impact of the disruption, which is achieved by developing supply chain factors with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data Analytics (BDA).

Design/methodology/approach

This research examines how organizations using AI and BDA can bring resilience to supply chains. To achieve the objective, the authors developed the methodology to gather useful information from the literature studied and developed the Total Interpretive Structural Modeling (TISM) by consulting 44 supply chain professionals. The authors developed a quantitative questionnaire to collect 229 responses and further test the model. With the analysis, a conceptual and comprehensive framework is developed.

Findings

A major finding, this research advocates that supply chain resilience is contingent upon utilizing supply chain analytics. An empirical study provides further evidence that the utilization of supply chain analytics has a positive and favorable effect on the flexibility of demand forecasting to inventory management, resulting in increased efficiency.

Originality/value

Few studies demonstrate the impact of advanced technology in building resilient supply chains by enhancing their factors. To the best of the authors' knowledge, no earlier researcher has attempted to infuse AI and BDA into supply chain factors to make them resilient.