Supply Chain Risk Management in Aviation and Aerospace Manufacturing Industry - an Empirical Study

Modern supply chains have added significant complexity and challenge to the management of supply chains. The risk associated with supply chain management increases along with the added complexity of supply chain configurations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the supply chain risk management techniques used by aviation and aerospace manufacturing firms and attempt to explain what factors are considered to have to highest probability of occurring and what practices are used to mitigate those risks. Empirical analysis of supply chain management drivers and practices including data analysis of the survey results from 53 different organisations is presented. Results associated with the vulnerability of the supply chains and drivers of supply chain risks are discussed. Factor analysis is used to categorise the drivers of risk mitigation strategies. Finally, cluster analysis is used to differentiate between companies that choose preventive over reactive supply chain risk management strategies.