In the 21st Annual POMS Conference (May 7 – 10, 2010) that was held in Vancouver, Canada, I presented the findings from an ongoing research that my co-authors (Christopher Boone, Christopher Craighead and Joe Hanna) and I are currently engaged in. In this research we assert that an organization’s supply chain strategy must incorporate an effective disruption strategy that seeks to both increase its ability to respond to a disruption and reduce the frequency and severity of disruptions. Researchers frequently point to inventory as a time-proven strategy for reducing supply chain risk and as a necessary component of an effective disruption strategy. However, an undisciplined or ineffective inventory strategy can itself create disruptions and have a detrimental impact on an organization and its entire supply chain. Our study draws from the rich body of spare parts inventory literature and the emerging research on supply chain risk and disruption to form the basis for a longitudinal field study investigating the value of a well aligned inventory strategy as a means for mitigating supply chain disruptions. Specifically, the study uses field data to assess the performance of a service-centric inventory strategy compared to an item focused strategy relative to (1) the occurrence of inventory flow disruptions (backorders) (2) the duration of the inventory flow disruptions (3) the occurrence of operational disruptions (severe disruptions that culminate in a process or resource shutdown), and (4) the duration of the operational disruptions. Results from nine test locations and one control location suggest that the service-centric strategy investigated is effective in mitigating both the occurrence and duration of supply chain disruptions.