How does the yoghurt cup get on the supermarket shelf and what does that have to do with risk?
Prof. Dr. Michael Eßig: The components of a yoghurt cup come from all over the world: the milk comes from Bavaria, but the strawberries are from Poland, the flavours are from Switzerland, the wood for the labels come from Canada, the glue is from Holland, the corn is from China, the raw aluminum for the lid comes from Russia, and so on. The components of a yoghurt cup cover a distance of more than 9,000 km only in Europe. That is quite risky: trucks can get stuck in traffic jams, railway connections can be canceled or borders are closed because of refugees for instance. Procurement and logistics manage these supply chains. For example, Audi alone has over 10,000 direct suppliers. One of the tasks we are investigating in RISK is to control this complexity without interruption - so that the yoghurt cup is guaranteed to be on the supermarket shelf on time.