Supply Chain Flexibility Dimensions Research Articles

Being digital and flexible to navigate the storm: How digital transformation enhances supply chain flexibility in turbulent environments

The growing environmental business uncertainties have forced companies to focus on developing more flexible supply chains. Digital transformation has been considered a key means to achieving such flexibility, but the literature lacks empirical evidence about how digital technologies effectively contribute to it. Thus, this study aims to analyze how Smart Supply Chain (i.e., a supply chain enabled by digital transformation) contributes to supply chain flexibility and operational performance in environments surrounded by customer and supplier uncertainty. We adopt the organizational information-processing theory to explain the fit between information needs to reduce these uncertainties through more supply chain flexibility (sourcing, delivery, and manufacturing) and information capabilities provided by three main dimensions of the Smart Supply Chain (digital transformation strategy, digital base technologies, and digital front-end technologies). We relate these information-processing fit between Smart Supply Chain and flexibility with the boundary conditions of environmental uncertainty and operational performance improvements. Such relationships are analyzed through moderation and mediation regression tests based on 379 manufacturing companies surveyed. Our findings show that Smart Supply Chain has a statistical association with operational performance through the sequential mediating role of the three supply chain flexibility dimensions. We also found that environments with high customer uncertainty increase the use of base technologies (IoT, cloud, big data, AI, and blockchain) to reach delivery flexibility and support manufacturing flexibility. When companies face high supplier uncertainty, they use front-end technologies (i.e., robotics, 3D printing, simulation, and augmented reality) to increase sourcing flexibility. We show new advances in supply chain flexibility through digital transformation.

The effects of supply chain flexibility on customer responsiveness: the moderating role of innovation orientation

We investigate the link between supply chain (SC) flexibility and responsiveness. Our study contributes to the literature by examining how SC flexibility, as a multi-dimensional construct, affects customer responsiveness and if this relationship is moderated by the innovation orientation of a firm. Using data from 225 Swedish manufacturers, we test our proposed empirical model and find empirical support for the positive effects of the supply chain flexibility dimensions on customer responsiveness. In addition, we found support for the strengthening effect of innovation orientation on the link between internal flexibility and customer responsiveness. The empirical validation of the relationship between the multi-dimensional SC flexibility and customer responsiveness which is moderated by the innovation orientation is an original contribution to both theory and practice.

An integration of environmental awareness into flexible supply chains: a trade-off between costs and environmental pollution.

Today, environmental awareness is highly interested in supply chains and logistics networks with regard to sustainable development goals. This proposes a bi-objective linear mathematical model comprising supply chain flexibility dimensions. The proposed model is to integrate environmental considerations into a flexible supply chain as an optimization framework. The first objective function is to minimize the costs, while the second one minimizes the environmental impacts of automotive industry. The goal of this paper is to find a trade-off between the total cost and the environmental pollution with regard to the supply chain flexibility dimensions. We suggest adding four different supply chain flexibility dimensions to the model which are budget for transportation, trained labor team to help the packaging process, number of active plants, and outsourcing the painting process flexibilities to curb harmful emissions from factories while reducing the costs. Six flexibility scenarios are proposed in this study to do the sensitivity analysis. The model is applicable with the use of a real data set derived from an automotive parts factory located in Iran. We use an improved augmented ε-constraint method to address the proposed bi-objective optimization framework. The results show that choosing the model with all flexibility dimensions is the best initiative to promote sustainable development, since it leads to a significant reduction in costs and environmental pollution.

Ambidextrous supply chain strategy and supply chain flexibility: the contingent effect of ISO 9001

PurposeTo analyze the effect of an ambidextrous supply chain strategy (ASCS) – i.e. the combination of exploration and exploitation practices – on each of the four dimensions of supply chain flexibility (SCF): information system, operating system, sourcing and distribution flexibility. Further, to evaluate the influence of implementing the ISO 9001 standard on the relationship between ASCS and SCF, and whether this certification directly affects the level of SCF. We ground our model in Resource Orchestration theory.Design/methodology/approachTo perform this study, the authors used data collected from a sample of 145 non-ISO-certified firms and 157 ISO-certified firms.FindingsASCS does not affect all four dimensions of SCF in the same way. Rather, its effect is contingent on the presence of the ISO 9001 certification. An ASCS is shown to have a positive effect on information system flexibility irrespective of the presence of ISO 9001 certification whereas for the other three dimensions of SCF, the effect of ASCS is dependent on ISO 9001 implementation. Meanwhile, ISO 9001 implementation itself does not affect the level of SCF.Practical implicationsManagers can use the findings to configure their supply chain strategy based on the specific dimension(s) of SCF they seek to develop by implementing ASCS. Further, the results inform managers about the incentives for implementing ISO 9001.Originality/valueAlthough prior studies have shown that an ambidextrous strategy enables firms and organizational units to adapt to the environment, there have been few prior studies on ambidexterity in a supply chain context. Further, although the extant literature has suggested that the ISO 9001 may facilitate ambidexterity, this link has remained largely theoretical. In fact, there is very little prior evidence on how the practice of ISO 9001 affects the supply chain.

Modelling Supply Chain Flexibility in the Indian Personal Hygiene Industry: An ISM-Fuzzy MICMAC Approach

With the changing business environment, firms are adopting flexible systems across their supply chains as a survival as well as a growth strategy. The aim of the article is to identity the key enablers of supply chain flexibility (SCF) adoption and to evaluate their fitness in the context of the personal hygiene industry in India. After a systematic literature review, 22 key dimensions of SCF have been extracted. A field investigation through interviews and a brainstorming session with industry experts have resulted in 11 dimensions, finally. Twenty-six experts participated in this interview and brainstorming session. These 11 dimensions have been exposed to interpretive structural modelling (ISM) to assess the hierarchal interaction among them. Fuzzy MICMAC has been employed to identify the driving dimensions of supply chain flexibility for the personal hygiene industry. The findings suggest that seven dimensions, namely process, manufacturing, sourcing, volume, market, new product development and coordination, have high dependence but weak driving power and are thus dependent on the other dimensions to influence the supply chain flexibility. Demand management and product flexibilities were found to have the strongest driving force and act as the key drivers for SCF. The originality of the conducted study lies in the multilevel hierarchical structure.

A template-based approach to measure supply chain flexibility: a case study of Indian soap manufacturing firm

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to quantify the supply chain flexibility for an Indian soap manufacturing firm and to measure its performance. The authors made an attempt to find key strategic and operational decision-making dimensions for developing effective supply chain flexibility environment.Design/methodology/approachThe authors have extracted 11 supply chain flexibility dimensions through extensive literature review. The authors used a decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) to make causal analysis and prioritizing the dimensions. After DEMATEL analysis three major supply chain flexibility dimensions that seem to have significant amount of influence on supply chain performance of the firms were retained for further consideration. The authors have developed an excel-based template for quantitative assessment of flexibility performance indicators.FindingsThis study provides key enablers for the successful implementation of flexibility concepts in Indian soap manufacturing firms and gives a view how to measure the performance through designing template based on real data. This template can be used in other firms also by simply modifying the key attributes.Originality/valueA flexibility index has been defined here with the purpose of assessing the level of flexibility vis-a-vis what is desired and is meant to be evaluated from time to time, to assess if the firm is improving its flexibility or not. The index assumes importance in view of the fact that it has been prepared based on feedbacks of both the upper and the lower management people of the firm engaged in policymaking and operations.

An integrative framework of supply chain flexibility

PurposeIt is crucial to recognize that supply chain flexibility is important to build sustainable competitive edge in coping with uncertainty. This study puts forth an empirically supported integrative framework to understand supply chain flexibility from market-oriented and network-oriented perspectives, interrelationships among its dimensions and the effect of supply chain complexity as a contingent factor.Design/methodology/approachThe online survey data were collected from 201 manufacturing companies and checked for common method variance, validity and reliability. Structural equation modeling was then used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results of this study demonstrate that there are interrelationships among market-oriented and network-oriented supply chain flexibility dimensions. It is the flexibility embedded in the supply chain network configuration that plays critical roles in superior performance in flexibility capabilities to create customer values. The interrelated effect among flexibility dimensions is contingent on the magnitude of the supply chain complexity corresponding to the number of supply chain tiers.Originality/valueThis study takes a step to advance understanding of supply chain flexibility from an integrative point of view consisting of market-oriented and network-oriented perspectives. This study is expected to provide practitioners the foundation to implement supply chain flexibility considering the interrelationships among flexibility dimensions. Our results suggest that to carry out a supply chain flexibility strategy, the vertical complexity of the supply chain structure needs to be taken into consideration.

Green operations: What's the role of supply chain flexibility?

This paper aims to understand the specific role that supply chain flexibility (SCF) can play in the successful adoption of green operations (GO) strategies based on evidence from the automotive industry. By conducting an exploratory case study with three automakers, it is found that different GO strategies require the support of different SCF dimensions. More importantly, the magnitude of the role played by each flexibility dimension varies depending on the degree of innovativeness in the green design initiatives, the types of green purchasing initiatives, and the strategic orientation of green manufacturing initiatives being adopted. Our case studies contribute to the theoretical understanding of the complex SCF-GO relationship by identifying the essential theoretical constructs and indicating their lower layer interactions in a systematic way. In practice, our findings may help managers assess which SCF dimensions can contribute more significantly to their specific GO efforts, and then strategically plan, develop, and deploy relevant flexibility to support beneficial outcomes. Our study contributes to the OM literature by clarifying the multidimensional effects of SCF on GO.

PENGARUH SUPPLY CHAIN FLEXIBILITY DAN TEKNOLOGI INFORMASI TERHADAP DAYA SAING PERUSAHAAN UKM KERIPIK TEMPE SANAN MALANG

Competitiveness as a key to obtain a competitive advantage and is the company's ability in: flexibility, innovation, quality and cost reduction. While supply chain flexibility can be used to analyze the overall system capacity to accommodate volume and schedule fluctuations from suppliers, manufactures and customers, this flexibility is essential to the success of the supply chain. To connect the entire supply chain functions, there are five dimensions of supply chain flexibility: supply flexibility, product flexibility, production flexibility, delivery flexibility and responsiveness flexibility. In this globalization era, when the company's competitive advantage can be achieved, the ability to support Information Technology (IT) for supply management flexibility plays an important part, as measured by indicators of information technology infrastructure capabilities and the ability to use information technology. This study findings that the application of IT has an influence on the competitiveness of SMEs Tempe Chip's Sanan, this is explained because it is still infrequent use of IT by SMEs to financial management activities and reports, as well as the development of innovation that affect the competitiveness of SMEs there tempeh crackers in orders. The research also found that the application of Supply Chain Flexibility (SCF) has no effect on the competitiveness of SMEs Tempe Chip's Sanan, which are described as the average chip makers Tempe orders in normal conditions are relatively stable level of demand, so in this case the flexibility of the supply chain not required. Meanwhile, in terms of product innovation, the average tempe chip's craftsmen produce the same good price, quality, or taste. Only the craftsmen who continue to innovate which can produce new products, but this condition does not last long because other craftsmen in the long run can imitate new products.

Manufacturing and supply chain flexibility – towards a tool to analyse production network coordination at operational level

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how the manufacturing and supply chain flexibility impact on the ability to transfer production between the units, i.e. production network coordination. To take advantage of available opportunities for different actors and locations, companies need to effectively transfer production. Design/methodology/approach – The case studied was a transfer of production between The Netherlands and Sweden. The case was selected based on the opportunity it provided to perform a longitudinal study of an ongoing production transfer. Findings – Different flexibility dimensions have different importance depending on the receiver or sender. A production transfer can be divided into four parts: knowledge, physical, administrative and supply chain transfer. The manufacturing flexibility have a high impact on the physical and knowledge transfer, the new product development dimension also have a major impact on the administrative transfer in combination with the supply chain flexibility dimension IT. The supply chain transfer was impacted by the supply chain flexibility dimensions except IT. Practical implications – The paper presents a first step towards a tool for analysing the strength and weaknesses within units in relation to receiving/sending production. Furthermore, that the production transfer should be viewed as four parts with interdependencies help to identify the order of the transfer process. Originality/value – This paper widens the flexibility concept to a network level. Furthermore, it describes the link between the strategic decision of coordination in the network and the operational ability of the network to accomplish this change.

EXAMINATION AND DETERMINATION OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SUPPLY CHAIN FLEXIBILITY TYPES IN LITERATURE

ABSTRACT Supply chain flexibility is an emerging and increasingly important issue in academic research and business practice. As a result, supply chain flexibility has been differently defined and discussed by many scientists. Furthermore, many different types, dimensions, and components of supply chain flexibility have been identified, defined, and described in the academic literature. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to explore the structure and origin of flexibility research, focusing on the types and dimensions of supply chain flexibility. Additionally, the current paper aims at reducing the many flexibility types and dimensions to a limited set to provide a cleary arranged structure of the scientifically most important types and dimensions that affect the flexibility of industrial supply chains. Therefore, a sample of 153 internationally published papers containing more than 5,000 citations that refer to more than 2,500 sources has been analysed to explore the most influential works and their impact on flexibility research. We evaluated the importance of the discussed flexibility types based on their citation frequency and attached greater value to more frequently cited and discussed flexibility types. Subsequently, we ranked the flexibility types to determine those that are most influential. Our results indicate that supply chain flexibility is primarily driven by three major capabilities: sourcing, logistics, and structural flexibility. Keywords flexibility, supply chain flexibility, flexibility types, supply chain management.

Identification and Evaluation of Supply Chain Flexibilities in Indian FMCG Sector Using DEMATEL

Supply chain flexibility is the one of the way to cope up with uncertainty present in business environment; also it gives a competitive edge to organizations over others. In response to increasingly drastic and competitive environments, organizations want to manage their resource and utilize their capacity in the best possible way. This paper identifies supply chain flexibility dimensions from literature and field survey and Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method was used for the purpose of flexibility dimension’s evaluation. The aim of the present study is to identify and evaluate supply chain flexibilities, prioritize them and finally study the relationship between these flexibilities and the degree to which they affect or are affected by one another in Indian FMCG sector. Authors have carried out a field study in a leading Indian FMCG firm to obtain responses regarding flexibility dimensions and obtained the results using DEMATEL. Finding shows market flexibility comes out as Flexibility with highest degree of relationship and new product development comes out as Flexibility with highest degree of effect. Results also bifurcate flexibility dimensions in two different groups: cause and effect.

Importance of Supply Chain Flexibility Dimensions Rated by Industry

This paper explores how the industry rates each of the five supply chain flexibility dimensions in supply chain management and operations based on the feedback from more than 200 manufacturing companies in Australia. Statistical classifications are used to identify patterns of consensus on these factors affecting the business operations of supply chain management in the surveyed companies. Our study shows that different sized companies rated these factors differently although some common patterns existed among many manufacturers. This knowledge is important in business decision making in different circumstances.

Interactive group decision-making using a fuzzy linguistic approach for evaluating the flexibility in a supply chain

With global competition rapidly intensifying and shifting to the supply chain level, the supply chain flexibility has become increasingly important. However, the literature addressing supply chain flexibility remains limited. This study thus builds a group decision-making structure model of flexibility in supply chain management development. This study presents a framework for evaluating supply chain flexibility comprising two parts, an evaluation hierarchy with flexibility dimensions and related metrics, and an evaluation scheme that uses a three-stage process to evaluate supply chain flexibility. This study then proposes an algorithm for determining the degree of supply chain flexibility using a fuzzy linguistic approach. Evaluations of the degree of supply chain flexibility can identify the need to improve supply chain flexibility, and identify specific dimensions of supply chain flexibility as the best directions for improvement. The results of this study are more objective and unbiased for two reasons. First, the results are generated by group decision-making with interactive consensus analysis. Second, the fuzzy linguistic approach used in this study has more advantage to preserve no loss of information than other methods. Additionally, this study presents an example using a case study to illustrate the availability of the proposed methods and compare it with other methods.

Evaluating operations flexibility in industrial supply chains to support build‐to‐order initiatives

PurposeThis paper seeks to evaluate the implications of operations flexibility in industrial supply chains and the effect it has on supporting initiatives designed for build‐to‐order (BTO) manufacturing.Design/methodology/approachAn industrial case study is used to investigate operations flexibility and its impact on industrial supply chains. Tools used in the analysis include value stream mapping (VSM) and a scorecard for performance measurement. The scorecard tool comprises daily utilisation figures, product demand and responsiveness measures such as supply chain cycle times and pipeline inventory.FindingsThe results of the analysis confirm that supply chain VSM and scorecarding are effective tools that can be used to measure the performance of supply chains through the identification of inefficiencies associated with supply chain integration/design. The analysis shows the duration of value‐adding and non‐value adding activities in the entire chain. Also, the analysis has revealed the close relationship between operations flexibility and the supply chain flexibility dimensions of people and information systems.Research limitations/implicationsThe research presented analyses the operations and the supply chain of one industrial case study. The analysis does not cover the life cycle of the products mentioned in the study.Practical implicationsThe study addresses the need, in the manufacturing industry, for tools that can be used in the analysis of manufacturing operations and supply chains, ultimately providing guidelines that can be used in the design of policies focused on performance improvement.Originality/valueBTO initiatives are growing in importance in the manufacturing industry. The flexibility of operations and the supply chain are closely related to the concept of BTO in manufacturing.

Supply chain flexibility and firm performance

PurposeTo explore the relationship between the dimensions of supply chain flexibility and firm performance in a sample of automotive suppliers.Design/methodology/approachEmpirical survey of a representative sample of 126 Spanish automotive suppliers during the months of September and October 2003. Data gathered through a mail survey to purchasing managers by using a structured questionnaire. Spearman correlation coefficients were used to analyse the relationship between the different supply chain flexibility dimensions, between supply chain flexibility dimensions and firm performance dimensions, and between supply chain flexibility dimensions and environmental uncertainty dimensions. A multivariate analysis studied the determinants of supply chain flexibility.FindingsThe research has found a positive relation between a superior performance in flexibility capabilities and firm performance, although flexibility dimensions are not equally important for firm performance. On the other hand, the results show that companies enhance more the basic flexibility capabilities (at the shop floor level) than aggregate flexibility capabilities (at the customer‐supplier level). However, aggregate flexibility capabilities are more positively related to firm performance than basic flexibility capabilities. Thus, companies might miss opportunities to improve competitiveness by underestimating customer‐supplier flexibility capabilities. Finally, the results indicate that flexibility capabilities are enhanced in supply chains with higher environmental uncertainty, technological complexity, and mutual understanding, but with lower interdependence among the agents involved in the supply chain.Research limitations/implicationsThere are other factors not included in the model that could impact the relationship between flexibility, supply chain characteristics and firm performance. On the other hand, the research has used cross‐sectional data, which are limited in order to explain causal relationships. Another limitation of the research is that we did not use any secondary data (like manual financial reports) to crosscheck firm performance.Practical implicationsThe results of the research contribute to a better understanding of the forces and constraints that companies face with flexibility capabilities.Originality/valueThe paper analyses the relationship between supply chain flexibility dimensions and firm performance. The model provides a framework of supply chain flexibility dimensions that may be used as a test base for further research.

Supply Chain Flexibility: An Empirical Study

SUMMARYThis article examines dimensions of supply chain flexibility and their relationships with environmental uncertainty, business performance, and functional interfaces. The findings indicate that volume flexibility and launch flexibility are key responses to marketing practices uncertainty and product uncertainty, respectively, in the highly cyclical furniture industry. Volume flexibility is also positively related to all measures of overall firm performance and highly related to market share and market share growth. Overall, excellent performers on supply chain flexibility are rewarded at the bottomline. However, performance with respect to volume, launch, and target market flexibilities has the widest ranging impact on financial and market performance.