Grant: Alliance Grants

Human-made or natural disasters have a large impact on supply chain operations. With a deepening of globalization, the supply chain network has become very complex and vulnerable to disruptions. In light of the outbreak of the global pandemic COVID-19, all business sectors have growing needs to restructure their operations with a resilient and sustainable supply chain. In today's diversified world, the supply network of one industry has a cross dependency on the supply network of a different industry. For example, the supplier of an automotive company may also be a producer of an important component for manufacturing respiratory valves. Moreover, designing a resilient supply chain brings challenges in ensuring cost-effectiveness and sustainability. However, to the best of our knowledge, no study has investigated these issues. With this gap in the literature, we propose a detailed study of effective management of the supply chain during large disruptions and supply chain recovery post-COVID-19. To execute our project, we have partnered with Canada's largest grocery and pharmacy retailer, Loblaw Companies Ltd. With sales value of around 50.31 billion Canadian dollars in 2019-20, and a broad network of corporate and franchised stores across the country, Loblaws is the ideal industry partner to collaborate in building a better understanding of complex supply chains and logistics. Both empirical and quantitative modeling will be conducted addressing current major business challenges in the food, pharma, and textile supply chain of Loblaws. The results of our study will support the implementation of cost-effective and resilient supply strategies for the company. As a long-term goal, the proposed study will focus on designing a sustainable supply chain, which can operate efficiently during large pandemics and continue to serve the Canadian with essential goods and services.