Brintrup, A., Wang, Y. and Tiwari, A. (2017) Supply networks as complex systems: a network-science-based characterization. IEEE Systems Journal, 11 (4). pp. 2170-2181. ISSN 1932-8184
Abstract
Outsourcing, internationalization, and complexity characterize today's aerospace supply chains, making aircraft manufacturers structurally dependent on each other. Despite several complexity-related supply chain issues reported in the literature, aerospace supply chain structure has not been studied due to a lack of empirical data and suitable analytical toolsets for studying system structure. In this paper, we assemble a large-scale empirical data set on the supply network of Airbus and apply the new science of networks to analyze how the industry is structured. Our results show that the system under study is a network, formed by communities connected by hub firms. Hub firms also tend to connect to each other, providing cohesiveness, yet making the network vulnerable to disruptions in them. We also show how network science can be used to identify firms that are operationally critical and that are key to disseminating information.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2015 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Aerospace; complex system; network science; supply networks |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 12 Sep 2018 11:59 |
Last Modified: | 12 Sep 2018 12:00 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1109/JSYST.2015.2425137 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | IEEE |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1109/JSYST.2015.2425137 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:135577 |