A multi-tier supply chain disruption recovery strategy considering the product life cycle

The global pandemic of COVID-19 has caused severe damage to the supply chain, and manufacturers may face long-term supply disruptions. A new product design change program taking into account product life cycle and lead time is introduced and incorporated into a disruption recovery model for a serial supply chain that minimizes manufacturer losses after supply chain disruption. A mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model is presented addressing this multi-period, multi-supplier, and multi-stage problem with long-term supply disruptions. A heuristic algorithm is designed to solve the model. In a numerical example, five disruption scenarios of the recovery model are solved. The results show that the proposed disruption recovery strategy can effectively reduce the profit loss of manufacturer due to supply disruption, and demonstrate the role of the product life cycle in the selection of product design change options. The proposed model can offer a potentially useful tool to help the manufacturers decide on the optimal recovery strategy whenever the supply chain system experiences a massive disruption.