A Framework for Assessing Supply Chain Flexibility

Abstract

Flexibility has been considered as a major determinant of competitiveness in an increasingly intense competition in the marketplace. Effective control of supply chain flexibility can improve the supply chain and business performance. Thus, it is necessary to assess supply chain flexibility precisely and systematically. This paper gives a considerable comprehensive analysis of supply chain flexibility and identifies five elements of supply chain flexibility, including operation flexibility, logistics flexibility, information flexibility, robust network and re-configuration flexibility, market and supply flexibility. According to the characteristics of supply chain flexibility, this paper develops a new framework for assessing supply chain flexibility. Based on the limited existing literatures, a dynamic synthetic evaluation model is presented to assess supply chain flexibility, which introduces time parameters to the evaluation model and gives consideration to the functionality and proportionality of the evaluation index. Finally, a numerical example is presented for the illustration of the proposed methodology. This paper builds on the theoretical foundation and leads to more effective formulation of supply chain strategies.