Resilience strategies to recover from the cascading ripple effect in a copper supply chain through project management

As the supply chains are growing and becoming more interdependent, the vulnerability and the chances of supply chain failure also increases. The supply chain industry is severely affected due to the COVID-19 outbreak and industry practitioners are focusing on minimizing the ripple effect of the disruption made to the economy. Considering the unprecedented situation, the research is motivated to analyse the ripple effect in a multi-echelon supply chain and investigate the performance at various nodes to understand the capability of the supply chain to withstand the disruptions at different levels. Using discrete event simulation, this study analyses the ripple effect in the copper industry by an agent-based simulation software anyLogistix, considering various key performance indexes (KPIs) to gauge the magnitude. From the results of the simulation, it is evident that the lack of safety stocks and multi-sourcing of copper facilitate as major causes for the disruptions. The simulation helps to understand the disruption levels and make the supply chain more resilient and robust for any future disruption. Further, the study proposes resilient project management solutions to recover from the cascading ripple effect in the copper supply chain. The scientific contribution of the research is to provide supply chain managers with simulation techniques to understand the ripple effect on the copper supply chain. It helps the stakeholders to understand the importance of project management tools to reduce the cascading ripple effect in a copper supply chain. Further, the findings of this study will support contemporary managers, supply chain allies, project managers, and stakeholders to formulate strategies for recovering from the supply chain disruptions caused due to natural disasters, pandemics such as COVID-19.