A fuzzy embedded leagility assessment module in supply chain

Abstract

Purpose In today’s ever-changing global business environment, successful survival of manufacturing firms/production units depends on the extent of fulfillment of dynamic customers’ demands. Appropriate supply chain strategy is of vital concern in this context. Lean principles correspond to zero inventory level; whereas, agile concepts motivate safety inventory to face and withstand in turbulent market conditions. The leagile paradigm is gaining prime importance in the contemporary scenario which includes salient features of both leanness and agility. While lean strategy affords markets with predictable demand, low variety and long product life cycle; agility performs best in a volatile environment with high variety, mass-customization and short product life cycle. Successful implementation of leagile concept requires evaluation of the total performance metric and development of a route map for integrating lean production and agile supply in the total supply chain. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to propose a leagility evaluation framework using fuzzy logic. Design/methodology/approach A structured framework consisting of leagile capabilities/attributes as well as criterions has been explored to assess an overall leagility index, for a case enterprise and the data, obtained thereof, has been analyzed. Future opportunities toward improving leagility degree have been identified as well. This paper proposes a Fuzzy Overall Performance Index to assess the combined agility and leanness measure (leagility) of the organizational supply chain. Findings The proposed method has been found fruitful from managerial implication viewpoint. Originality/value This paper aimed to present an integrated fuzzy-based performance appraisement module in an organizational leagile supply chain. This evaluation module helps to assess existing organizational leagility degree; it can be considered as a ready reference to compare performance of different leagile organization (running under similar supply chain architecture) and to benchmark candidate leagile enterprises; so that best practices can be transmitted to the less-performing organizations. Moreover, there is scope to identify ill-performing areas (barriers of leagility) which require special managerial attention for future improvement.