Title: Assessing supply chain flexibility: a conceptual framework and case study

Authors: I. Nyoman Pujawan

Addresses: Center for Supply Chain and e-Business Management, Department of Industrial Engineering, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Kampus ITS Sukolilo, Surabaya 60111, Indonesia

Abstract: Flexibility has been considered as a major determinant of competitiveness in an increasingly intense competition in the marketplace. A large body of literature has been addressing various issues of flexibility in the last two decades. However, the discussions have mainly been from the viewpoint of a manufacturing company as a single entity in a supply chain. The flexibility related to machine, process, routing, part, worker and the like are all associated with a manufacturing or a production system. With the advent of the supply chain management concepts, business communities have been realising that being flexible in a production system only is insufficient. Thus, flexibility concepts should be broadened from the perspective of a production system into a supply chain system. However, the study addressing supply chain flexibility is still limited. This paper presents a framework for assessing flexibility of a supply chain. Four main parts of flexibility are identified including flexibility of the product delivery system, production system, product development, and supply system. In each of these parts, a number of pertinent elements are defined. A general guideline for conducting flexibility assessment is also presented. In an attempt to assess the model validity, a case study also forms a part of the paper.

Keywords: supply chain; flexibility assessment; framework; case study.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISM.2004.004599

International Journal of Integrated Supply Management, 2004 Vol.1 No.1, pp.79 - 97

Published online: 26 May 2004 *

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