Title: Managing Supply Chain Flexibility using an integrated approach of classifying, structuring and impact assessment

Authors: Dileep More, A. Subash Babu

Addresses: Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai 400076, India. ' Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India

Abstract: Flexibility in the Supply Chain (SC) has emerged as a new strategic tool to enhance business excellence. The exploitation of flexibility is vital in designing, planning and controlling SC system to improve an organisation|s ability to recover from disruptions. There are various types of SCF, each type comes in various forms and each of which can be implemented in different ways and with different costs. The topic of Supply Chain Flexibility (SCF) has drawn the attention of the researchers and practitioners over a decade. However, in literature, there is no evidence of any study focused on interdependency among various types of SCF types. An attempt has therefore been made to identify and analyse relationships among the SCF types, to establish contextual relationships among them to identify the factors that are relevant to various SCF types and to evaluate the dynamics among them. The details of the study are reported in this paper.

Keywords: SCF; supply chain flexibility; SCM; supply chain management; flexibility types; hierarchical relationship structures; relationship dynamics; interpretive structural modelling; impact assessment; strategic tools; business excellence; disruptions; systems implementation; interdependency; classification; contextual relationships; services management; operations management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2011.037440

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2011 Vol.8 No.1, pp.46 - 75

Published online: 11 Mar 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article