Chapter 2 Conceptual Frameworks for Supply Chain Management

To ensure long-term competitiveness and survival, companies implement new strategies, based on collaboration with business partners and an advanced utilization of IT and Web services (Geunes et al. 2002). Various competitive strategies of agile, responsive and flexible SCs have been developed over the last decade. In many branches, hierarchical SCs with long-term predetermined suppliers’ structures and product programmes evolve into flexible dynamic SC structuring (Sarkis et al. 2007). Nowadays, agile organizations with heterogeneous structures, core competences, buyer-focused cells and extensive application of Web services are being increasingly introduced in practice (van Donk and van der Vaart 2007). Collin and Lorenzin (2006) emphasize that “an agile SC is a basic competitive requirement in the industry and building agility into operations requires a continuous planning process together with customers”. According to Vonderembse et al. (2006), “an agile SC profits by responding to rapidly changing, continually fragmenting global markets by being dynamic and context specific, aggressively changing, and growth oriented. They are driven by customer designed products and services”. Chandra and Grabis (2007) identified the key triggers for designing and implementing SC with regard to agility, flexibility and responsiveness. They are as follows: