Evaluation of agility in supply chains using fuzzy association rules mining

Abstract

The management of contemporary supply chains is complex because of their stochastic and dynamic nature. Also, modern supply chains are imbibed with agile characteristics. Several technologies have emerged for the management of agile supply chains. But most of them are in development stages. No common method exists for evaluating agility in supply chains by both researchers and practitioners. The complex manufacturing systems necessitate the validation of innovative solutions using advanced managerial tools and techniques. The manufacturing paradigms have to be evaluated according to their short term action and long term benefits. This article reports the utilisation of fuzzy association rules mining (FARM) approach which enables the decision makers to make flexible decisions for evaluating agility in supply chains in the presence of attributes such as flexibility, profitability, quality, innovativeness, pro-activity, speed of response, cost and robustness. The approach has been applied in an Indian electronic switches manufacturing organisation. The experiences of the conduct of this research indicate that agility evaluation can be performed without constraints by the decision makers. The case study is being demonstrated in which agility of supply chains is evaluated by determining association rules from the database.