Robustness of assembly supply chain networks by considering risk propagation and cascading failure

•We construct a theoretical risk model of assembly supply chain network.•A cascading failure model based on production capability loss is developed.•We consider different disruption scenarios and their probability.•We assess network robustness at different node threshold and linking intensity.•The simulation results show that 30% nodes removal cause network collapse.

An assembly supply chain network (ASCN) is composed of manufacturers located in different geographical regions. To analyze the robustness of this ASCN when it suffers from catastrophe disruption events, we construct a cascading failure model of risk propagation. In our model, different disruption scenarios ss are considered and the probability equation of all disruption scenarios is developed. Using production capability loss as the robustness index (RI) of an ASCN, we conduct a numerical simulation to assess its robustness. Through simulation, we compare the network robustness at different values of linking intensity and node threshold and find that weak linking intensity or high node threshold increases the robustness of the ASCN. We also compare network robustness levels under different disruption scenarios.