Research On Supply Chain Flexibility

Uncertainty is common in nowadays' economic environment. Dramatic change in politics, economy, and social security has been witnessed as a result of Global Economy. Without exception, all commercial activities of Supply Chain are facing new problems due to the market change and global distribution. Especially, customer loyalty to the product brand is descending, how to maintain the connection to customers and reduce the cost of the supply chain is the most urgent issue that all participants in Supply Chain are concerning about.Recently, out-sourcing the peripheral business is popular in a lot of corporate to simplify Supply Chain. Although it does reduce the cost of Supply Chain, It also increases the risk and complexity of commercial relationship, because it generates a lot of interest principals. The reaction of Supply Chain decreases due to the increasing complexity. The supply chain consists of multiple principals, including supplier, retailers, and numerous out-sourcing partners. This results in many problems in the operation of the Supply Chain. Consumers, as the end of the supply chain, in the contrary, are expecting transparent, seamless services. However, in order to achieve the overall operating efficiency, all participants in the chain must consistently react to the change of the outside uncertainty.The information flow and product flow are not linear or parallel, but complicated network consisting of numerous paths. Different commercial flow, information system, and corporate culture among the partners in the chain also increase the chain operating difficulty. The traditional management methodology of the supply chain can't effectively manage product flow, capital flow, or information flow, nor can it coordinate the reaction to the change of outside market environment. As a result, the investment in time and money on the current supply chain is not effective and efficient. We are facing a lot of challenges on how to effectively manage the supply chain.Up to date, systematic analysis and research of the flexibility of Supply Chain are very limited. It is just an extension of manufacture flexibility. Although the manufacture flexibility is very important to the flexibility of Supply Chain, The flexibility of Supply Chain is not the same as the manufacture flexibility due to its specific properties.The paper is organized as follows:Chapter one is a summary of the definition, categorization, measurement of the flexibility, and a comment on current research about supply chain flexibility, providing the paper framework.The basic research on the flexibility of Supply Chain is presented in Chapter two. The structure model and what consists of supply chain are analyzed. We provide the definition and categorization of supply chain flexibility based on combined supply chain with flexibility together from the point of decision-making.In chapter three, a more detailed interpretation of how to establish the flexibility of supply chain is presented based on chapter two. The strategy, tactic and operation components are analyzed respectively.The measurement method of the flexibility of supply chain is analyzed in chapter 4. The measurement method mainly includes environment background, information technology, and evaluation standard.A detailed interpretation of strategy, tactic and operation are presented in chapter 5, 6. 7 respectively. The establishment of long-term, effective structure is analyzed in the level of strategy. In tactic, we focused on the design of short-term operation. The control of the three important parameters is discussed, which includes the interactive relationship before and at procure, and the optimization of operating period, and the flexibility price formation among all participants in the chain. Three policies are presented in operation in order to increase the daily operating flexibility of supply chain. The first is the coordination of the in-stock in all connecting points. The second is the adjustment of the flexibility of human resource. The third is the coordination of the two factors, predicting efficiency and transition of transportation modes, which are important in coordinating the planning of all connecting point corporate.Chapter 8 is a case study based on the research of Apple corporate by Levy 1992 and other research reports. Several strategies to affect the flexibility of supply chain are analyzed in a practical way.Chapter 9 is a summary of the paper and the scratch of future research.