Improved Supply Chain Crisis Response: A Study of Modular Design

In 2020 COVID-19 caused global disruptions in the supply chain that are still showing ripple effects in mid-2022. Pandemics are not the only form of crisis that causes supply chain disruptions. With increasing instances of natural disasters, organizational misconduct, economic instability, and political unrest, crisis management has become a growing issue within businesses and the supply chain field. This article examines the previous literature on crisis management by identifying the types of crises that will affect a focal firm’s suppliers in the chain, and how those types of crises will affect the supply chain. We continue by adding response measures through creating modular design and modular innovation capability, which will not prevent the crisis but will drastically decrease supply disruption and thus decrease response time for the focal firm. Lastly, a model is created for future empirical research based off of the previous literature that shows how modular design and modular innovation capability can alleviate the damage of crises in the supply chain through greater agility, flexibility, and adaptability.