Efficient chains can still snap under stress. Supply chain resilience is the ability of a supply chain to anticipate, absorb, adapt to, and recover from disruptions while maintaining acceptable customer service.

Resilience draws on redundancy, flexibility, visibility, and rapid decision processes. Dual sourcing, alternate routings, strategic inventory, and nearshoring are structural options. Stress testing and playbooks prepare teams for scenarios before they occur.

Building resilience often raises cost in normal times. The return appears when disruptions hit and competitors without buffers fail to supply. Leading organizations treat resilience as a designed property, not as luck.

• Ability to withstand and recover from disruptions
• Built through redundancy, flexibility, and visibility
• Supported by scenarios and response playbooks
• Trades some efficiency for continuity under stress