Self-healing Supply Networks: A Complex Adaptive Systems Perspective

This paper aims for a logical deductive literature-based generation of hypotheses regarding the robustness of complex adaptive logistics systems (CALS) based on self-healing processes. Therefore, the increasing necessity for supply networks to gain and maintain robustness in order to ensure a high reliability of their logistics services is shown. Additionally, the concept of CALS is presented in order to deduce the outcomes that result from a technology-based increase of the CALS characteristics. Finally, a set of hypotheses is developed that link the outcomes of CALS with the evolvement of self-healing processes in supply networks in order to deduce implications for their robustness. Hence, a starting point for further empirical and simulation-based research is presented, on which basis an operationalization of the outcomes of CALS and their self-healing abilities can be conducted.