A supply chain resilience model is established based on the biological cellular resilience theory to analyze the impact of the supplier relationship on supply chain resilience. A scenario where the market demand is changed suddenly by some undesired events is considered. The results reveal that enhancing collaboration with a more resilient supplier can significantly improve supply chain resilience and reduce supply chain losses. It is also found that enhancing the supplier relationship can significantly benefit supply chain resilience if the collaborative intensity is relatively low, and it has less effect if supply chain members have already collaborated closely. Thus, enhancing the supplier relationship to a limited intensity is a relatively effective and economic method to strengthen supply chain resilience.
