Topological robustness of the global automotive industry

The manufacturing industry is characterized by large-scale interdependent networks as companies buy goods from one another, but do not control or design the overall flow of materials. The result is a complex emergent structure with which companies connect to each other. The topology of this structur...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Alexandra Brintrup, Anna Ledwoch, Jose Barros
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BVL 2015-12-01
Series:Logistics Research
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.bvl.de/lore/all-volumes--issues/volume-9/issue-1/topological-robustness-of-the-global-automotive-industry
Description
Summary:The manufacturing industry is characterized by large-scale interdependent networks as companies buy goods from one another, but do not control or design the overall flow of materials. The result is a complex emergent structure with which companies connect to each other. The topology of this structure impacts the industry’s robustness to disruptions in companies, countries, and regions. In this work, we propose an analysis framework for examining robustness in the manufacturing industry and validate it using an empirical dataset. Focusing on two key angles, suppliers and products, we highlight macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of the network and shed light on vulnerabilities of the system. It is shown that large-scale data on structural interdependencies can be examined with measures based on network science.
ISSN:1865-035X
1865-0368