The document analyzes the complex supply network of the aerospace industry using social network analysis (SNA). Data on 544 suppliers and 1657 relationships was collected from public sources from October 2013 to January 2014. SNA was used to identify the tiered structure of suppliers and examine network properties like degree distribution, path length, clusters, density and key network roles. The analysis found that large supply networks are complex systems not supported by hierarchies. Hub firms tend to connect others, making the network vulnerable if they fail. The aerospace network also has community structures from geographic and sector influences, with some non-aerospace firms playing an information sharing role.

1. SNA OF COMPLEX SUPPLY NETWORKS
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Subhasis Pradhan
S Kumar Jagannath
MBA-2nd Year

2. INTRODUCTION
 Aerospace industry global supply chain – 65% to 85% of
final cost
 3 sourcing trends impact aerospace supply chains –
I. Focus on core capabilities.
II. Rationalization – Suppliers to provide competitive edge.
III. Internationalization – Suppliers mainly from customer
countries.
 Understand the complex networks across suppliers by SNA.
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3. Data Collection
 Data was collected from
publically available content.
 Single database –
Comprehensive and Consistent.
 Span – Oct 2013 to Jan 2014.
 Network - 544 suppliers and
1657 relationships.
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4. Analysis
 Identification of Tier 1 suppliers
followed by corresponding Tier 2.
 Process was continued till Tier 4.
 Examining overall structure of network
using
I. Degree distribution.
II. Average shortest path length.
III. Cluster coefficients.
IV. Density
V. Community
VI. Assortativity.
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5. Analysis……..contd.
 Random networks are used
for structural comparison.
 Key Network factors and
their roles were identified as
–
I. Network connectors
II. Network Integrators
III. Network mediators
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9. Findings
 Large scale supply networks are complex
systems and not supported by hierarchical
models.
 The hub firms tend to connect other firms.
 Network is vulnerable to failure of hub firms
as disruption will cascade to rest of the
network making it disconnected.
 Aerospace network is grouped into
community structures emerging as a result of
both geographic and sector based influences.
 Some firms play important roles in
dissemination of information though they are
not from aerospace sector.
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11. Conclusion
 The emergent natures of this structure means design and control is only possible at
the local neighborhood of the firm. Hence firms need to realign the way it is
embedded in structure or design strategies.
 The investigation has been a structural one and heterogeneous attributes like
inventory, logistic distance etc. were not considered. The addition of these variables
would be needed to carefully trade off so that a system level understanding could
be developed.
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