Anyway, the more the paradigm of lean supply chain is spreading, the more the actors involved and their mutual interrelations increase in number and therefore vulnerability and risk exposure grow.
The measure of such vulnerability is known as “resilience”. This subject has received specific attention in literature, indeed many authors attempted to clarify the meaning and the implications of supply chain resilience (SCR). Although each definition considers this term under a different perspective, unpredictability and reactivity are recurring elements. To cite a few, Barroso
et al. define SCR as “the ability to react to the negative effects caused by disturbances that occur at a given moment in order to maintain the supply chain objectives”,and Falasca et al. consider SCR as “the ability of a supply chain system to reduce the probabilities of a disruption, to reduce the consequences of those disruptions once they occur, and to reduce the time to recover
normal performance”, to this end examples and case studies on supply chain disruptions can be found in Longo and Ören .
Moreover another, rather similar, definition of SCR can be found in Sceffi , where SCR is the “ability of an organization to successfully confront the unforeseen”, and many other definitions can be found in Stravos [17] where a detailed review on
SCR is proposed. In addition, when it comes to SCR other important factors include flexibility, agility, velocity, visibility, and redundancy [5]. However, SCR is not a matter of interest for the academic community only, but it is or even more important “in the business world”, both for global and for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Indeed, as reported in “Understanding Supply Chain Risks; Mc Kinsey Global Survey”, 65% of the surveyed executives coming from global firms agree that risks are constantly emerging and growing in supply chains. Moreover, on that point, Jüttner and Ziegenbein [18] confirm that this topic is equally important to SMEs, because “they are often exposed to the same risks as their large international firm counterparts but they miss the necessary resources, structures and processes”.