Paper info

Flexibility in supply chain management

Guido Penners, Jarmila Kopecka and Sicco Santema

The paper was published at the 25th IMP-conference in Marseille, France in 2009.

 ABSTRACTLiterature describes several developments in supply chain management. Flexibility is considered to be an important differentiator in the current market place. Several papers already emphasized the need for flexibility although little attention is paid to how operational activities incorporate flexibility in their supply chain practices. In this paper, emphasis is put on the dyadic buyer-supplier relationship, marketing activities and manufacturing in order to achieve flexibility in supply chain management. These aspects are illustrated with three case studies in which supply chain structures have been evaluated in two different kinds of markets. In the end, the role of flexibility is evaluated and how this can lead to a competitive advantage.