Creating agile supply chains

Abstract

An agile business needs an agile supply chain. Quick response to customer demand, the ability to customise and the need to provide multiple variants for profitable customer niches are all increasingly required by many companies. Yet as manufacturers inexorably move their sourcing of components and low value-added operations offshore, to lower cost countries, so their supply chains increase in both distance and complexity. Many companies are faced with the challenge of providing an agile response to customers and yet operating a lean operation across an extended global supply chain. This is a challenge that needs a solution beyond the abilities of simply judgement, the telephone and spreadsheets. Companies need to utilise the power of Internet-enabled software to provide visibility across their global supply chain and to help them optimise it. In particular the new generation of supply chain optimisation software offers companies the ability to gain visibility and optimisation across their supply chains, at significantly reduced ownership costs compared to earlier systems.