Introduction

Several phenomena like financial crises, natural disasters, geopolitical tensions, and climate change have impacted the continuity and profitability of manufacturing companies. Recent examples are the COVID-19 pandemic, closely followed by the current energy crisis. These negative events highlight the paramount importance of novel research in the field of resilience, to be prepared to very dynamic contexts and radical disruptions, absorb the perturbations as efficiently and effectively as possible, and be quick in returning to a new equilibrium.

The previously mentioned aspects motivated scholars to study the concept of resilience of complex organizations such as industrial supply chains. Although standardized models that allow measuring the level of resilience of manufacturing companies are still missing.

Research Objectives

The main objective of the research project is the development of a model to measure resilience of Italian manufacturing companies.

It will be developed as a conceptual, abstract and context-independent model, to be applied to different industrial organizations (e.g. in terms of size, industry, position of the supply chain, boundaries). The unit of analysis of the model, therefore, will be set to a manufacturing company (either a small and medium sized enterprise or a large industrial company) by considering the inbound, intralogistics as well as the outbound logistics.

Work Packages

WP1: PROBLEM STATEMENT

Task 1.1. Context Analysis

Task 1.2. Identification of emerging trends and transformations

Task 1.3. Definition of research framework and elaboration of problem statement

WP2: MODEL DEVELOPMENT

Task 2.1 Identification of measurement Items and Scales

Task 2.2 Identification of Key Performance Indicators

Task 2.3 Development and verification of Resilience Measurement Model

WP3: EMPIRICAL VALIDATION

Task 3.1 Validate Resilience Measurement Model

Task 3.2 Identify relationship between resilience and output indicators

WP4: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Task 4.1 Recommendation for industry

Task 4.2 Recommendation for Policy Makers

Task 4.3 Implications for further research

WP 5: DISSEMINATION

Task 5.1 Development of Web Portal

Task 5.2 Diffusion of the results

WP 6: PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Task 6.1 Coordination and Management

Task 6.2 Management of administrative and financial aspects