Agile and resilient approaches to supply chain management: influence on performance and competitiveness
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Agile and resilient approaches to supply chain management: influence on performance and competitiveness Helena Carvalho • Susana Garrido Azevedo V. Cruz-Machado
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Received: 14 October 2011 / Accepted: 2 January 2012 / Published online: 12 January 2012 Springer-Verlag 2012
Abstract Supply chain management must adopt different and more innovative strategies that support a better response to customer needs in an uncertain environment. Supply chains must be more agile and be more capable of coping with disturbances, meaning that supply chains must be more resilient. The simultaneous deployment of agile and resilient approaches will enhance supply chain performance and competitiveness. Accordingly, the main objective of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework for the analysis of relationships between agile and resilient approaches, supply chain competitiveness and performance. Operational and economic performance measures are proposed to facilitate the monitoring of the influence of these practices on supply chain performance. The influence of the proposed agile and resilient practices on supply chain competitiveness is also examined in terms of time to market, product quality and customer service. Keywords Agile approach Resilient approach Supply chain performance Competitiveness
H. Carvalho V. Cruz-Machado UNIDEMI, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Faculdade de Cieˆncias e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Campus Universita´rio, Caparica 2829-516, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] V. Cruz-Machado e-mail: [email protected] S. G. Azevedo (&) UNIDEMI, Department of Management and Economics, University of Beira Interior, Po´lo IV—Edifı´cio Ernesto Cruz, Covilha˜ 6200-209, Portugal e-mail: [email protected]
1 Introduction Supply chains must adopt new strategies to improve their ability to respond rapidly and cost effectively to unpredictable changes in markets and increasing levels of environmental turbulence, both in terms of volume and variety. That is, supply chains need to have an agile approach to deal with all these changes. In addition to changes in customer preferences, supply chains are vulnerable to disruptions, and consequently, the risk to business continuity has increased [1]. Resilience is referred to as the ability of supply chains to cope with unexpected disturbances. Whereas in the past the principal objective in supply chain design was cost minimization or service optimization, the emphasis today has to be upon resilience [2]. Both agile and resilient approaches influence supply chain performance and competitiveness. These two approaches will contribute to more competitive supply chains in terms of time to market, quality and customer service, thereby improving market share and reinforcing leadership [3]. The simultaneous integration of different supply chain management strategies or approaches is not a new topic in the context of supply chain management. Naylor et al. [4] coined the concept of ‘‘leagile’’, the integration of lean and agile paradi
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