Agility Criteria Research Articles

A Comprehensive Evaluation Model for Smart Supply Chain Based on The Hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Method

Enhancing the smartness of the supply chain under the influence of information technology development at different levels can have a significant effect on its overall performance and a favorable response to the continuous changes in the business environment in the wide network of local and global supply chains. Therefore, in this study, the important and influential aspects of supply chain smartness have been investigated via a comprehensive assessment model. Then, evaluation criteria are prioritized using the new combined multi-criteria decision-making method. For this purpose, the supply chain of Iran Khodro Company has been considered as a case study. The identification and selection of assessment criteria are based on the literature review and experts' opinions via the Delphi method. Then, by using the developed best-worst group fuzzy method, the final prioritization of the criteria has been proposed. Finally, the evaluation of smartness improvement solutions is proposed by using the Vikor method. The main obtained results indicate the importance of cost, technology, security, customer relationship management, and agility criteria.

An integrated approach for the merger of small and medium-sized industrial units

Considering the importance of small and medium-sized industrial units for economic growth, social cohesion, regional and local development, this study presents a model for the merger so that they can make use of each other’s capacities and facilities to achieve higher efficiency levels. The involved criteria have been chosen using the SCOR model with the consideration of sustainability, resilience and agility criteria in each part of the supply chain network. PCA has been used to reduce the dimensionality and the efficiency of units has been determined by network DEA. Next, a mathematical model has been used to determine the best combination for merger. The model chosen for the finalization of the merger process is inverse network DEA, which tries to determine the final inputs of the merged units for a specific target. In addition to theoretical benefits, the results have practical applications. The results can give supply chain partners a common language for better communication and help them settle on standardized definitions. The model has been implemented using real-world data gathered from other articles, which pertain to 26 stone industries of Iran. The DEA model and the mathematical model have been solved through GAMS and the PCA approach through MATLAB.

Differential Influence of General Anthropometric and Motor Predictors on Pre-planned Agility in Pubescent Boys and Girls: A Multiple Regression Study

In this study, we investigated the influence of balance, jumping power, and speed as well as morphological variables for three different agility tests in early pubescent boys (n=73) and girls (n=63). The predictors included body height and mass, body fat, high jumps, the overall stability index, ankle mobility, and a 10 and a 15 m sprint. The statistical analysis included calculations of correlations, regression models for the correlated variables, and the validation of the regression models. The calculated regression models for the male group explained 38% of the variance in a Zig-Zag test, 12% in a 20-yard test (20Y), and 81% in a T-test. The significant regression model for the Zig-Zag test included body mass, high jumps, and a 10 m sprint. The 20Y test had no predictors in the male group. For the T-test, the only predictor was the 10 m sprint. The calculated regression models for the female group explained 57% of the variance in the Zig-Zag test, 32% in the 20Y test, and 42% in the T-test. The significant regression model in the female group included only the 10 m sprint for all three agility criteria. The regression models were cross-validated using the second half of the sample (boys: n=36; girls: n=31). The correlation between the predicted and the achieved scores provided a statistically significant validation for all agility tests.

Presenting an integrated BWM-VIKOR-based approach for selecting suppliers of raw materials in the supply chain with emphasis on agility and flexibility criteria (Case study: Saipa Corporation)

In this study, to select suppliers of raw materials in Saipa Automotive Corporation as one of the largest factories in Iran, environmental criteria, flexibility and agility criteria are considered and some sub-criteria are also considered for each criterion. The sub-criteria include green design, clean technology, environmental performance, agility in operational systems, market agility, logistics agility, product flexibility, flexibility in transportation, resource flexibility. It should be mentioned that the said criteria may need modification and revision due to opinions of experts during the research implementation. Therefore, main variables for the issue of identification of criteria affecting selection of suppliers are studied with regard to environmental factors within the organization. In order to rank suppliers and to select the best option based on a best-worst multi-criteria decision-making method (BWM) and VIKOR-based approach was used. According to the calculations based on the proposed process in this study and the information about the desired criteria, 7 suppliers were selected as the best options. As the approach presented in this study has combined two worst-best method to determine weights and VIKOR method for final ranking of options, this approach can be also used in other studies.

Agility in small sized pump manufacturing companies - an exploration in an Indian scenario

Today, companies are required to imbibe agility characteristics. Agility of a company refers to its capability in producing innovative products by reacting quickly in accordance with the dynamic demands of the customers. In this paper, a research has been reported in which the agility level prevailing in three small size pump manufacturing companies located in India was measured by using a model called 20 criteria agile manufacturing measurement model. By using this model, the agility of these companies was measured by using a measure called agility index. The agility index of one of them was found to be higher than that of the other two. Further, it was explored to identify the weak agility criteria practiced in the three small size pump manufacturing companies. This exploration indicated that poor adoption of technology prevents the small sized pump manufacturing companies from speeding up of the agile manufacturing journey in an Indian scenario.

An integrated Principal Component Analysis and multi-objective mathematical programming approach to agile supply chain network design under uncertainty

The design of agile supply chain networks has attracted more attention in recent years according to the competitive business environment. Further, due to high degree of uncertainty in agile supply chains (SCs), developing robust and efficient decision making tools are of interest. In this study, an integrated approach based on principal component analysis (PCA) and multi-objective possibilistic mixed integer programming (MOPMIP) approaches is proposed to optimally design agile supply chain network under uncertainty. The PCA method is used for ranking and filtering the suppliers, constituting the first layer of the supply chain, based on agility criteria. The proposed MOPMIP model is employed to construct the agile supply chain network under uncertainty. In the proposed MOPMIP model, three objective functions including 1) total costs minimization, 2) total delivery time minimization and 3) maximization of flexibility are considered. An interactive fuzzy solution approach is used to solve the proposed MOPMILP model. Two numerical examples, is conducted to evaluate the performance and efficiency of the proposed integrated approach for agile supply chain network design under uncertainty.

Proposing a new approach for evaluating supply chain agility by data envelopment analysis with a case study in Pashmineh Kavir factory

The aim of this survey is to propose an approach for evaluating agility ratio of supply chain units by data envelopment analysis (DEA). In this approach, after literature review the most important agility criteria have been chosen. Then, appropriate indicators for evaluation based on chosen criteria have been defined. For DEA, appropriate inputs and outputs have been determined and the BCC output oriented method has been used. The proposed approach has been examined in Pashmineh Kavir factory. Findings imply that four units of the factory are inefficient and other units are efficient in respect of agility.

TADS: An assessment methodology for agile supply chains

2015AbstractGlobalization has been facilitating the entry of numerous competitors in the world of manufacturing market. As a result, modern manufacturersare approached by numerous players in the market to provide varieties of products. To achieve competitive edge in the rapidly changing businessenvironment, organizations must align with suppliers and customers to streamline operations and work together to achieve desired levels of agility.In a bid to cope with market instability, companies now look beyond cost advantage. Speed, quality and agility are being emphasized as meansof responding to the unique needs of customers and markets. This study deals with improving the flexibility levels of the supply chain of anorganization by analyzing various agility criteria and calculating the agility index. This is a distinguished effort in creating agile supply chainsusing Total Agile Design Systems as an assessment tool.All Rights Reserved © 2015 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Centro de Ciencias Aplicadas y Desarrollo Tecnológico. This is anopen access item distributed under the Creative Commons CC License BY-NC-ND 4.0

An ISM-ANP approach to identifying key agile factors in launching a new product into mass production

In order to gain a competitive advantage in the globalised environment, a company has to operate with a high level of agility in terms of responding quickly and flexibly to changes in competitive criteria, the market, and customer demands. Agility has become an important strategic factor in competition. When the design stage of an original equipment manufacturer (OEM)'s or original design manufacturer (ODM)'s product is completed, and it starts to enter the mass production stage, a number of uncertain factors are often encountered, which may delay the manufacturing process and lead to lost business opportunities. Focusing on this issue, the present research establishes a hybrid approach to discovering the critical agility factors when launching a new product into mass production. In this research, interpretive structure modelling (ISM) is first utilised to identify the interactive causal relationships of the employed agility factors. Further, an analytical network process (ANP) model is applied to obtain the importance weights of the agility criteria based on the dependence or feedback relationships among the factors obtained from the results of ISM. As a result, both a visualised causal relationship and a quantified representation of the critical agility criteria can be provided to aid managers in effective decision-making.

Application of fuzzy VIKOR for concept selection in an agile environment

Due to the increasing competition, modern manufacturing organisations are adopting agile manufacturing (AM) paradigm. AM enables the speedy production of customised, high-quality products in varying lot sizes. Concept selection in the context of AM is a typical multi-criterion decision making problem as it involves several agility criteria. The case organisation needs to select the best concept among five alternative designs. VIKOR (VlseKriterijumskaOptimizacija I KompromisnoResenje in Serbian, meaning multi-criteria optimization and compromise solution) has been used to select the best concept design. Based on the inputs gathered from decision makers, concept design (A3) has been found the best concept design from the perspective of agility. The result derived from Fuzzy VIKOR has been compared with fuzzy TOPSIS (technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution) methodology. The selected concept design has been subjected to implementation in the case organisation.

An Approach for Constructing Evaluation Model of Suitability Assessment of Agile Methods using Analytic Hierarchy Process

Agile methods are rapidly growing in popularity software development methods that are not suitable everywhere due to their specifics. The results of previous researches including agility criteria and weights construction are used in this research. The approach for the construction of evaluation models of the suitability assessment of agile methods at IT companies is presented. The terms and concepts used for the approach are defined. The process of the construction the evaluation model is presented. A widely used Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is used for the construction of the relative weights of agility criteria. The case study of the creation concrete evaluation model is presented. The example of the usage of the constructed evaluation model at some IT company is presented. The accuracy check of the correctness of evaluations is performed. The conclusions of the research are presented, stating that proposed approach increases the effectiveness of the use of agile methods and facilitates the process of suitability evaluation.

A decision-support framework for agile enterprise partnering

Being an essential part of an agile supply-chain management and focusing on selecting business partners, agile enterprise partnering is regarded as a key activity that can make a significant contribution to the development of a successful supply chain. This paper proposes a decision-support framework for the evaluation and selection of business partners in order to help the industry form agile supply chains. Based on literature review and empirical studies, the proposed framework organizes 32 agility criteria into ten decision domains according to their inherent characteristics. The identified criteria and decision domains form a hierarchy that acts as an agile partner-assessment model. In order to provide empirical evidence for the proposed model, a case study is conducted. Using the data collected from site visits and interviews, the weight values of decision domains and criteria are determined via a pairwise comparison method. Considering the incomplete and vague nature of the collected data, an evidential reasoning and synthesis approach is employed to conduct multi-criteria and multi-level synthesis. The advantages of the proposed methodology and methods are demonstrated by the case study results.