Survival analysis in supply chains using statistical flowgraph models: Predicting time to supply chain disruption

Random events such as a production machine breakdown in a manufacturing plant, an equipment failure within a transportation system, a security failure of information system, or any number of different problems may cause supply chain disruption. Although several researchers have focused on supply chain disruptions and have discussed the measures that companies should use to design better supply chains, or study the different ways that could help firms to mitigate the consequences of a supply chain disruption, the lack of an appropriate method to predict time to disruptive events is strongly felt. Based on this need, this paper introduces statistical flowgraph models (SFGMs) for survival analysis in supply chains. SFGMs provide an innovative approach to analyze time-to-event data. Time-to-event data analysis focuses on modeling waiting times until events of interest occur. SFGMs are useful for reducing multistate models into an equivalent binary-state model. Analysis from the SFGM gives an entire waiting time distribution as well as the system reliability (survivor) and hazard functions for any total or partial waiting time. The end results from a SFGM helps to identify the supply chain's strengths, and more importantly, weaknesses. Therefore, the results are a valuable decision support for supply chain managers to predict supply chain behaviors. Examples presented in this paper demonstrate with clarity the applicability of SFGMs to survival analysis in supply chains.