Supply flexibility

Real-time supply visibility. As demand is shaped, forecast error increases. As a result, it is important to have flexible supply processes to translate the demand impacts to internal and external supply organizations through supply visibility with minimal signal distortion and latency. 

The core tenet in developing flexible supply chains is the practice of collaboration. Supply chain collaboration is the confluence of all parties in the supply chain acting in unison towards common objectives. Collaborative partners share information, knowledge, risk, and profits (Men-tzer et al., 2000) based on a foundation of trust and commitment to one another. Ultimately, as organizations move beyond mere operational-level exchanges toward collaboration, supply chains become more competitive (McLaren, Head, Yuan, 2002). Supply chain collaboration does not happen on its own, Mentzer et al. (2000) found that certain conditions or enablers must be in place for partners to forge a collaborative union and share in the benefits ofthe effort. Specifically, the authors found that collaborative relationship required partners in supply chains to ... 

For many products such as automobiles, there are both functional and innovative products. Fisher notes that a functional car such as a Taurus should use an efficient supply chain with as much cost squeezed out as possible. But a high-margin convertible could earn more profit with a flexible supply chain that is more responsive to demand. Note that this can be done without changing physical distribution but by modifying the business rules for finished goods and key component inventory. 

Stevenson M (2013) The role of services in flexible supply chains an exploratory study. Int J Agile Sys Manag 6(4) 307-323... 

The flexible supply chain strategy addresses uncertainties associated with supply chain operations and primarily demand uncertainty. The flexibility is an ability in a relatively inexpensive way to respond to changes in customer demand and shift production and delivery to products with the highest demand and value. This ability usually is aheady built-in in the system, therefore, supply chain already should be designed to provide a certain level of flexibility. This characteristic limits a kind of changes and level of uncertainty the supply chain is able to react, and designing flexible systems usually is more expensive than designing lean systems. 

From the supply chain network perspective, flexible supply chains have built-in redundancies and cushions in the form of extra units and links to deal with changes and uncertainties. The supply chain units and links are less specialized and multiple functions can be performed. It is argued that the flexible supply chain strategy attempts to deal with uncertainty without drastic overhaul of the supply chain network. 

Kim J, Rogers KJ (2005) An object-oriented approach for building a flexible supply chain model. Int J Phys Distrib Logist Manag 35 481-502... 

Supply chain strategy Flexible supply chain... 

A flexible supply of clean running water must be available where tankers are off-loaded and where hypochlorite is handled or used. Provision of an emergency shower is essential. 

GowH.R., OliverL.D., GowN.G., 2002, Co-operating to Compete in High Velocity Global Markets The Strategic Role of Flexible Supply Chain Architectures, Journal on Chain and Network Science, 2(1), pp. 19-32. 

A list of basic R D and tests to be performed at the detailed design stage has been prepared, ANNEX XIX. In addition, in order to provide a more flexible supply of energy, IPPE and Gidropress also develop a smaller version of lead-bismuth cooled reactor — the SVBR-10 of lOMW(e). 

Portable apparatus may be of Class I construction, in which case the metalwork is earthed by a protective conductor which is a separate core in the flexible supply cable, or it may be of Class II construction, having no protective conductor terminal as its metalwork is not earthed. The essential safety feature of Class II apparatus is that the basic insulation is supplemented by additional insulation to provide a further safety barrier and danger arises only if both insulating layers fail. There are two types all insulated where the supplementary insulation is a plastic case, and double insulated where there is a metal case but live parts are separated from it by two layers of insulation. It is not advisable to use enclosed ventilated Class II apparatus in wet environments, because moisture may penetrate and provide a conductive film between the touchable surfaces and internal live conductors. 

The paradox is that the business model adopted by Boeing, i.e. outsourcing the design and manufacture of sub-assemblies to supply chain partners, was motivated by the aim of speeding up time-to-market. The original view at Boeing was that using external specialists would enable a more flexible supply chain, capable... 

ChMig, F., Ettl, M., Lin, G., Schwarz, M., Yao, D. (2003). Flexible supply contracts via options (Working PapM). Yorktown Heights IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. 

Garber, Randy, and Suman Sarkar. Want a More Flexible Supply Chain Supply Chain Management Review (January/February 2007) 28-34. 

Flexible Supply Strategy via Flexible Supply Contracts. As discussed above, HP faced a supply commitment risk because they were not allowed to revise their order quantity once submitted to Canon. To reduce HPs supply commitment risk. Canon agreed to offer HP some adjustment flexibility, that is, they allowed HP to adjust their order quantity upward or downward, but limited the adjustment to be no more than a few percent. This type of supply contract, one that specifies an upward/downward adjustment limit, is called a Quantity Flexible (QF) contract. QF contracts enable firms to rrutigate their supply-commitment risk by shifting their order quantities across time. Clearly a firm has more flexibility as the adjustment limit in a QF contract increases but does it need a large limit or will a small one suffice to effectively mitigate the firm s conunitment risk This is one of the questions addressed in this chapter. 

Supply Flexible supply via multiple suppliers. Flexible supply via flexible supply contracts. Shift orders quantities across suppliers. Shift order quantities across time. 

Clearly, a more flexible supply chain performs better than a less flexible supply chain and, therefore, the measnre V(f) is increasing in / However, what is less clear is whether is concave or convex in f. (See Fig. 10.1) If V(f) is concave, then significant benefits associated with a flexibility strategy can be obtained with a low level of flexibility e.g., when/is small. On the other hand, if V(J) is convex, then a firm needs to invest in a high level of flexibility in order to obtain significant benefit. In the remainder of this section, we analytically examine the flexibility measnre V f) for each of the 5 flexibility strategies. This examination is based on the analysis of different stylized models as reported in Tang and Tomlin (2007)... 

Supply-Commitment Risk The Benefit of Flexibiiity via a Flexible Supply Contract... 

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