Business excellence through supply chain flexibility in Indian industries: an investigative study

Supply Chain Flexibility (SCF) has been a topic of interest for academicians and practitioners. It is evident from the published literature that this problem, poses considerable challenges to the various segments of the Supply Chain (SC). In order to be competitive, the Indian manufacturing industries have already started implementing flexibility in different segments of the SC by several means and ways. A survey was carried out among the Indian manufacturing organisations to learn about their experience and perceptions related to SCF. The issues of importance identified are the triggers (stimuli) which force an organisation to seek higher flexibility, the means (enablers) which facilitate the realisation of SCF and the hurdles (inhibitors) which hinder progress in SCF. The data collected clearly revealed that different organisations perceive SCF differently and also practice various policies. The data also analysed using ANOVA and Factor Analysis (FA) helped in establishing the various trends and perceptions that are in vogue. The details of the study, analysis and the results are presented in this paper.

[1]  Oscar A. Saenz,et al.  Analysis of the structural measures of flexibility and agility using a measurement theoretical framework , 2003 .

[2]  Matthias Holweg,et al.  The three dimensions of responsiveness , 2005 .

[3]  Anand Nair,et al.  Linking manufacturing postponement, centralized distribution and value chain flexibility with performance , 2005 .

[4]  Rajeev Sawhney,et al.  Interplay between uncertainty and flexibility across the value-chain: Towards a transformation model of manufacturing flexibility , 2006 .

[5]  S. Vickery,et al.  Supply Chain Flexibility: An Empirical Study , 1999 .

[6]  Felix T.S. Chan,et al.  Framework for flexibility in dynamic supply chain management , 2008 .

[7]  Avi Fiegenbaum,et al.  Output flexibility—A competitive advantage for small firms , 1991 .

[8]  D. Upton.  The Management of Manufacturing Flexibility , 1994 .

[9]  K. S. Rao,et al.  Flexibility and Agility For Enterprise Synchronization: Knowledge and Innovation Management Towards Flexagility , 2003 .

[10]  Nagesh N. Murthy,et al.  A framework for assessing value chain agility , 2006 .

[11]  Markus Biehl,et al.  International supply chain agility ‐ Tradeoffs between flexibility and uncertainty , 2001 .

[12]  Nagesh N. Murthy,et al.  The antecedents of supply chain agility of a firm: Scale development and model testing , 2006 .

[13]  Carlos Cordón,et al.  An empirical test of the rigid flexibility model , 1998 .

[14]  D. Gerwin.  Manufacturing flexibility: a strategic perspective , 1993 .

[15]  R. Eltantawy,et al.  Purchasing/supply chain management flexibility: Moving to an entrepreneurial skill set , 2005 .

[16]  B. Kayis,et al.  Manufacturing flexibility and variability: an overview , 2004 .

[17]  Güven Sak,et al.  How flexible are small firms? An analysis on the determinants of flexibility , 2004 .

[18]  Xavier de Groote,et al.  The flexibility of production processes: a general framework , 1994 .

[19]  Cristina Giménez Thomsen,et al.  Drivers and Sources of Supply Flexibility: An Exploratory Study , 2005 .

[20]  A. Sánchez,et al.  Supply chain flexibility and firm performance , 2005 .

[21]  Suresh P. Sethi,et al.  Flexibility in manufacturing: A survey , 1990 .

[22]  E. Fleisch,et al.  Managing flexibility strategically: a case-study on repositioning , 2004 .

[23]  Omar El Sawy,et al.  Coordinating for Flexibility in e-Business Supply Chains , 2004, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[24]  D. Wright,et al.  Managing Inflexible Supply Chains , 1998 .