Development Of A Decision Support System Utilizing Influence Diagrams For Modeling Supply Chain Risk Events

The efficient and uninterrupted flow of goods, services and information acrossborders is a critical problem for manufacturing enterprises today. As supply chainsbecome more geographically distributed, disruption risks proliferate and even a singlefailure event could be catastrophic to a business’s competitiveness and market share.Hence there is a need for better risk modeling and faster decision making in the supplychain management process to mitigate the risk of loss.This thesis will attempt to identify the major risks that could disrupt a supply chain;identify the risk factors that drive those risks and model them; then design an influencediagram model to visualize the relationships between those factors and finally build adecision support system that supply chain managers can utilize to track and managethose risks.The research outcomes of this thesis will provide enterprises with the ability tomore efficiently track risks in their procurement processes, and be cognizant of any riskescalation in their supply chain to allow pre-emptive mitigation before costs spiral outof control. The target audience for this thesis will be the professional supply chainmanagers and academics interested in the area of supply chain risk management.