Measuring Supply Chain Flexibility (scf) Considering Inventory Buffers in Uncertain Business Environments

Flexibility in supply chain (SC) is desired not only for countering and handling uncertainties but also for planning strategies, to gain competitive edge by the corporate firms. Recently extensive work is being reported in Supply Chain Flexibility (SCF) focussing mainly on its multi dimensional aspects and how to obtain and implement it. However SCF is no free lunch and it may require huge investments to realise its potential benefits. „How much flexibility is required‟, thus becomes the core concern for firms willing to be flexible. This question is rarely discussed in the literature and therefore measuring SCF is a prominent field where research needs to be focused. In this paper we present a mathematical model to evaluate supply chain flexibility at supplier buyer interface with an aim to attain robust supply in all possible scenarios. This is done by designing a SCF measureψ, which reflects flexibility of a nodal firm in SC by considering factors like its minimum lead time, minimum order quantity it takes from downstream, maximum quantity it can supply in case of complete plant disruptions and inventory buffer, it maintains to be flexible. The paper contributes by analysing and evaluating SCF in environment of demand and lead time uncertainties and risk of major plant disruptions while considering inventory buffers to enhance the flexibility of SC.