An approach based on FMECA methodology for a decision support tool for managing risk in customs supply chain: a case study

Risks such as smuggling of drugs, smuggling of weapons and commercial fraud highlighted the vulnerability of the customs supply chain. Therefore, their economic, political and social impacts are highly detrimental to the countries, businesses and to the public. Risk management plays a major role in mastering safety in a proactive manner. For this reason, customs supply chain, faced with these risks, requires specific and adequate responses such as techniques, attitudes and strategies for risk management. This paper aims to set up a new concept 'customs supply chain', and design a specification of this concept by establishing the conceptual, structural and functional aspects of customs supply chain. This paper also deals with a new approach for managing risks in customs supply chain based on failure modes effects criticality analysis (FMECA method). Such new approach aims to not only determine the key critical risks using criticality as a risk indicator, but also recommend the best possible solutions to manage these particular risks. Hence, by the implementation of our step by step approach in Moroccan customs supply chain as an application context, the effectiveness of our risk management approach as a tool for decision making is fitted and validated on the entire risk typologies in customs context. Moreover, the findings of our case study provide a general framework to better manage risks in customs supply chain.