Nowadays, supply chains are highly complex and exposed to an increasing vulnerability against risks due to strong dependencies between the supply chain actors. The past has shown severe interruptions in the supply chain as a result of natural and/or man-made disasters. Concerning this risk management and especially supply chain risk management (SCRM) has become an important management tool. Nevertheless, supply chain risk management has to face the challenge to identify, analyze and control cross-company risks which occur somewhere in the supply chain.

Implementation itself is neither a guarantee for durable effectiveness of the system nor for long-term company success. Regarding this control mechanisms are necessary to detect and correct both deviations and carelessness.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) often face problems in assessing their state in SCRM, for example due to lack of transparency or incompatible IT systems. That is the reason why existing standards should be expanded. A systematic standard for self-auditing the SCRM system would help SMEs to identify deviations in current and desired status.

The project focuses on developing a holistic concept for self-auditing to detect both, weaknesses in the SCRM system and potential success factors for the company. Particularly importance is given to a SME-specific conception to apply the auditing with an acceptable effort.

Especially SMEs are invited to participate in the planned project workshops to exchange current project results with other industry partners.

The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology via the Industrial Community of Research and Development (IGF) and supported by the “Bundesvereinigung Logistik” (BVL). Since Mai 2014 the research work is executed under the academic supervision of Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Wolfgang Kersten by the Institute of Business Logistics and General Management (LogU) in cooperation with several industry partners from the industry. Project duration is 24 month.