This blog has previously reported profusely on flexibility, let alone resilience and robustness, but has severely neglected agility. With this post, I intend to take a closer look at what it means to be agile. This is the only reference I have found that properly differentiates between agility and flexibility and what being agile actually entails.
The key issue is to not make your supply chain one type only, but to keep it open-ended, such that the appropriate supply chain constellation can be matched to the according customer or supplier or product.
Someone had to come up with this, it was just a matter of time, and it is no suprise that this article comes from India, one of the major providers of global outsourcing for many industries.
Opposites attract and in the supply chain world, “lean” and “agile” appear to be opposites. Both management strategies have their advantages and disadvantages.
These concepts are often confused, and thus, warrant further explanation. They are distinctively different.
The other day I came across a new term: Agile Business Continuity, on the blog of Paul James, agilecontinuity.org. It is a blog that is well worth reading and I think that the word agile really captures the essence of what business continuity management (BCM) is about in the first place.
