Modeling an agile supply chain: Research challenges and future directions

Abstract

Changing customer and business requirements force manufacturers to develop agility in order to be competitive. Agility refers to the skill to respond to these unexpected needs of the market. This paper presents the essence of agile supply chain (ASC) and contributes to the existing literature on ASC by highlighting the key research challenges and issues important to both practitioners and academicians. The paper reviews how diverse modeling techniques such as Soft computing, Expert System, Fuzzy Logic, Evolutionary Algorithms, Neural network etc. can be applied to model and analyze an ASC. More specifically, this paper aims at consolidating the existing research issues for further study in this area. It also identifies conflicts in a dynamic environment like that of a fashion industry. Moreover, the importance of agility as a tool to survive in the volatile market as the new dimension of this particular research domain has been discussed. © 2012 Springer India Pvt. Ltd.