Detecting disturbances in supply chains: the case of capacity constraints

Purpose - The ability to detect disturbances quickly as they arise in a supply chain helps to manage them efficiently and effectively. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the feasibility of automatically and therefore quickly detecting a specific disturbance, which is constrained capacity at a supply chain echelon. Design/methodology/approach - Different supply chain echelons of a simulated four echelon supply chain were individually capacity constrained to assess their impacts on the profiles of system variables, and to develop a signature that related the profiles to the echelon location of the capacity constraint. A review of disturbance detection techniques across various domains formed the basis for considering the signature-based technique. Findings - The signature for detecting a capacity constrained echelon was found to be based on cluster profiles of shipping and net inventory variables for that echelon as well as other echelons in a supply chain, where the variables are represented as spectra. Originality/value - Detection of disturbances in a supply chain including that of constrained capacity at an echelon has seen limited research where this study makes a contribution.