Title: Supply chain agility: analysing the enablers

Authors: M.N. Faisal, D.K. Banwet, R. Shankar

Addresses: Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Hauz Khas 110016, New Delhi, India. ' Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Hauz Khas 110016, New Delhi, India. ' Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Hauz Khas 110016, New Delhi, India

Abstract: Supply chain agility is important as it provides the capability to quickly adapt the changing market requirements. So every organisation is working towards transforming their supply chains into agile entities. But, it needs a proper understanding of variables that impact the agility of supply chains. Using Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM), this paper has developed a hierarchy of these variables. Further, Graph Theoretic Approach (GTA) is applied to quantify the most important variables as deduced from ISM model and to understand the interdependencies among them. The results show that not all the variables require the same focus, instead there is a set of variables known as driver variables which needs maximum attention. An agility improvement index is proposed based on these driver variables to compare various supply chains on agility improvement efforts. Integration of ISM and GTA is a unique effort in the area of supply chain management.

Keywords: agility; graph theory; supply chain management; SCM; interpretive structural modelling; ISM; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; agile supply chains; agile systems.

DOI: 10.1504/IJASM.2007.015682

International Journal of Agile Systems and Management, 2007 Vol.2 No.1, pp.76 - 91

Published online: 07 Nov 2007 *

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