Abstract-Because the risk factorscannot be accurately measured it is very difficult to evaluate the risk ofsupply chain. By introducing hesitancy degree into the risk evaluation process,an intuitionistic fuzzy model is developed to describe the problem. With thismodel, an algorithm is proposed to evaluate the risk of supply chain. Exampleshows that the proposed method is superior to the existing ones and isapplicable for practical applications.

Keywords-supply chain, risk of supplychain, intuitionistic fuzzy relations, risk assessing

1. Introduction

In nowadays market economy, the competition shiftsfrom the competition between single enterprises to the competition betweensupply chains[1]. But, in a series of incidents occurring in the supply chainhave caused a great loss[2]. Because of this, the supply chain risk managementhas become the focus of attention in academic circles and business circles, andhas become a hot research area of supply chain management[3,4].

Supply chain risk is a relatively new concept, andthere is no unified cognition. Dina et al. propose that supply chain risk is apotential threat, and will lead to the supply chain system vulnerability, andbrings great loss to the enterprises on the supply chain[5]. Xiaohui et al.think that Supply chain risk is that the influence of uncertain factors fromthe enterprises’ production process, and it will cause the deviation betweenthe supply chain enterprises actual income and the expected[6].Accordingto the definition provided by Deloitte, supply chain risk refers to theuncertainty of the occurrence of an event that could influence (generally in anegative sense) the achievement of company’s business objectives[7]. CranfieldSchool of Management consider that the supply chain risk is the vulnerabilityof the supply chain[8]. Based on the above scholars’ definition of supply chainrisk, the supply chain risk can be defined as follows: