Risk management concepts have been around for several years, but they have generally been bounded to the financial area. Today, according to common experience and evidences, the supply chain is where risk management is assuming a critical role, since it is where risk becomes most damaging for a company: in fact, the last decades have been characterized by several events (i.e. earthquake in Kobe in 1995, terrorist attack to WTC in 2001, SARS in 2002-2003) that have disrupted supply chain operations repeatedly (Tang, 2006).
One of the main factors that contributed to disruptions is the lean attitude (lean production or lean manufacturing) that took a relevant role in academia and industry during the 90s, pulling the demand for streamlined manufacturing systems with expected zero-inventory and just-in-time movement of goods. In current volatile era, with businesses and, more specifically, supply chains becoming increasingly global, the industrial environment is heavily affected by uncertainty, which can potentially turn out into unexpected disruptions.
