The agile supply chain

In Chapter 9 we consider another key aspect of the agile supply chain - the 

The mission of logistics today is to ensure that it is the right product - to meet exact end-customer needs - that gets delivered in the right place at the right time. Such a mission means that the end-customer comes first. This chapter proposes the agUe supply chain as an approach that elevates speed capabilities in a given 

It is also important to recognise that no single approach offers a solution to every supply chain situation, a point we made in section 1.4.3. 

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He continued, "It has been fonndational for our success. For most of our company s history our direct business model—and the agile supply chain that drove it— were key differentiators for Dell. Constant feedback from our customers, partners, and snppliers gave us the insight that we needed to fine-tune our operations and deliver only the products and services that our customers wanted."... 

Christopher, M. (2000), The Agile Supply Chain, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 29. 

In the top left-hand box where lead times are long but demand is predictable then a lean type approach will be appropriate. Materials, components or products can be ordered ahead of demand and manufacturing and transportation facilities can be optimised in terms of cost and asset utilisation. Conversely the bottom right-hand corner is the real domain of the agile supply chain. Here demand is unpredictable but lead times are short, enabling quick response type solutions -the extreme case being make-to-order (but in very short time-frames). 

Firstly, the agile supply chain is market-sensitive. By market-sensitive is meant that the supply chain is capable of reading and responding to real demand. Most organisations are forecast-driven rather than demand-driven. In other words, because they have little direct feed-forward from the marketplace by way of data on actual customer requirements, they are forced to make forecasts based upon... 

Source. Adapted from Harrison, A., Christopher, M. and van Hoek, R., Creating the Agile Supply Chain, Chartered institute of Logistics and Transport, 1999... 

The concept of agility the dimensions of the agile supply chain, and the environments that favour agility. We consider when and where agile capabilities should be applied to supply chains. 

Chapman, P and van Hoek, R. (2007) Creating the agile supply chain - eight years on, working paper, Cranlield School of Management. 

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