Question

The global marketplace has witnessed an increased pressure from customers and competitors in manufacturing as well as service sector (Basu, 2001; George, 2002).Due to the rapidly changing global marketplace only those companies will be able to survive that will deliver products of good quality at cheaper rate and to achieve their goal companies try to improve performance by focusing on cost cutting, increasing productivity levels, quality and guaranteeing deliveries in order to satisfy customers (Raouf, 1994).

Increased global competition leads the industry to increasing efficiency by means of economies of scale and internal specialization so as to meet market conditions in terms of flexibility, delivery performance and quality (Yamashina, 1995). The changes in the present competitive business environment are characterized by profound competition on the supply side and keenindecisive in customer requirements on the demand side. These changes have left their distinctive marks on the different aspect of the manufacturing organizations (Gomes et al., 2006). With this increasing global economy, cost effective manufacturing has become a requirement to remain competitive.

To meet all the challenges organizations try to introduce different manufacturing and supply techniques. Management of organizations devotes its efforts to reduce the manufacturing costs and to improve the quality of product. To achieve this goal, different manufacturing and supplytechniques have been employed. The last quarter of the 20th century witnessed the adoption of world-class, lean and integrated manufacturing strategies that have drastically changed the way manufacturing firm’sleads to improvement of manufacturing performance (Fullerton and McWatters, 2002).

1. Due to COVID 19 emergency do you thinkagile supply chain is the right concept in this kind of situation? Give reason with example.

Answer 1

Meaning of Agile Supply Chain:

Agile supply chain is a technique of distributing products quickly, maintaining flexibility and being responsive to market demands. However, this system cannot cater to large scale demands of the market, which is a drawback of this system and this is system is a bit costlier than lean principle of supply chain management. Which is a reason recently most of the manufacturing companies have adopted lean principle.

Situation of Covid-19 emergency:

Today, Covid-19 is a public health emergency of international concern and has impacted most of the countries all over the globe including USA.

Covid -19 and Demand of basic commodities:

However, Covid-19 emergency is an unanticipated situation which has occurred leading to several hospitalizations, deaths and lock-down in several countries. But, the basic need of commodities like milk, bread and flour etc. is almost the same. People need basic commodities even being at home to spend their living.

Agile Supply Chain Management system not being the right concept during Covid-19, reasons and examples are as follows:

a. Agile can’t handle mass requirement and High demand for basic commodities: Example: demand of basic commodities like bread, milk or other household items is still almost the same and have hardly decreased. Agile system is weak to cater large scale demands and can only look after small scale demands.

b. High cost: Agile system involves higher cost and is expensive. Example: During Covid-19 emergency the businesses are not running properly, people are losing jobs and revenue generation is improper. Leading to less flow of money or income generation. Therefore, countries need low cost supply chain system right now.

Conclusion:

Yes, it is true that Agile system is more adaptable and flexible and is able to cater the demands faster, but, this system is not successful in case of larger scale needs or large demands. Agile can cater only to small scale demands, which does not fit to the demand of basic commodities while Covid-19 emergency as the demand is still high for such commodities.

Suggestion: In today’s scenario keeping in view the international health emergency. Combining certain stages of Agile Supply Chain and Lean Principles can lead to a better Supply Chain Management to handle this kind of situation.