Background:Strategic flexibility and supply chain agility are integral for textile companies in developing countries to achieve success and competitive benefits. Technology is continuously being adopted in the supply chain process. However, some developing companies are lagging due to a lack of investment, poor infrastructure, lack of skilled workers, and other challenges. Developing countries face significant barriers to competing in the market. For instance, there is advancement in the supply chain for textile manufacturing that cannot be adopted by developing countries because of their conventional and rigid business model. Evaluating the relationship between strategic flexibility and supply chain agility in developing countries is imperative. Aim:This research aimed to discover the impact of different factors of strategic flexibility in the supply chain agility of textile companies in developing countries. Methodology:The research adopted a qualitative research method, utilizing semi-structured interviews with managers and employees of the supply chain process. We have employed two case studies i.e.Lucky Textile and Rainbow Textile, located in Pakistan. We used a thematic analysis technique to analyze data. Findings:The research identified three factors that influenced textile companies' strategic flexibility and supply chain agility. The factors include uncertainties in the environment, technology enablers, and organizational relationships. The technology enablers have been found more effective; however, the selected textile companies faced a lack of investment in technology adoption and usage of technology. Moreover, trust in partners, the commitment of partners, and shared vision between partners are three major factors involved to achieve supply chain agility and strategic flexibility. Conclusion:The adoption of technology can improve strategic flexibility and supply chain agility in textile companies in developing countries. Nevertheless, there is a need to adopt some useful steps like investing in technology, training and educating workers, building trust, and doing more research to enhance supply chain performance and satisfaction. Further research is required to discover the contribution of technology enablers to achieve strategic flexibility and supply and chain agility in other developing countries.

Problem: The interest for sustainable business models is continuously increasing. In recent years closed-loop supply chain management and reverse logistics have gained ground in literature and in practice. One way of giving a product a new life is through charity shops. Charity organizations constantly struggle to stay efficient and reach their social commitment, often in an environment characterized by high uncertainty and with scarce resources. Literature has identified supply chain agility as one of the main sustainable success factors for organizations, especially when acting in an uncertain environment. However, previous studies have mainly focused on large enterprises and have largely neglected the context of charity shop logistics. Purpose: The purpose of this study is bring further understanding of logistic capabilities for supply chain agility in the context of charity shop logistics. Method: The study is conducted as a case study in a charity organization. The data gathering method is primarily qualitative data from semi-structured interviews, however some data was obtained from the ERP-system and from observations. The approach was mainly exploratory, and data analyzed from the interpretivistic paradigm. Data was triangulated and analyzed in relation to literature. Conclusion: Charity shop logistics faces a special context with high uncertainty from both supply and demand side. The study in contrast with previous studies indicated greater importance from integrated logistics capabilities for supply chain agility. This might be due to the special context the organization operates in where it is crucial to satisfy the need of the suppliers (donors) and the customers, while matching donations with sales. / Problem: Intresset för hållbara affärsmodeller växer ständigt. Under de senaste åren har slutna försörjningskedjor (closed-loop supply chains) och omvändlogistik (reverse logistic) vunnit mark i litteratur och i praktiken. Ett sätt att ge en produkt ett nytt liv är genom välgörenhetsbutiker. Välgörenhetsorganisationer kämpar ständigt med att vara effektiva för att kunna nå deras sociala åtagande, ofta i en miljö som karakteriseras av hög osäkerhet och med begränsade resurser. Litteratur har identifierat agila försörjningskedjor som en av de huvudsakliga långsiktiga framgångsfaktorerna för organisationer, särskilt när de verkar i en osäker miljö. Tidigare studier har dock fokuserat på större företag och har i stor utsträckning bortsett från kontexten av välgörenhetsorganisationer.  Syfte: Syftet med studien är att ge ökad förståelse om de logistikförmågor som krävs för att öka den agila förmågan i försörjningskedja, detta i kontexten av välgörenhetsbutiker. Metod: Studien är utförd som en fallstudie i en välgörenhetsorganisation. Framförallt kvalitativa data från semi-strukturerade intervjuer insamlades, dock analyserades även data från affärssystem och från observationer. Tillvägagångssättet var främst explorativt, och resultat tolkades från en interpretivistisk synvinkel. Insamlat resultat traingulerades och analyserades i relation till litteraturen.   Slutsats: Välgörenhetsbutiker möter en speciell kontext med både hög osäkerhet från leverantörs- och försäljningssidan. Till skillnad från tidigare studier visar denna studie större betydelse av integrerande logistikförmågor för att uppnå en agilare förörningskedjan. Detta kan bero på den speciella kontexten som organisationen verkar i där stor vikt läggs på att tillgodose både donatorernas (leverantörernas) och kundernas behov, samtidigt som donationer ska matchas med försäljning.

Supply chain agility has been receiving a lot of attention in recent literature as a way for organizations to become more responsive to change and improve customer service levels. However, agility is typically dealt with qualitatively, and organizations are usually unsure of the steps to take to improve their agility and the customer service level to target. This research studies supply chain agility based on a case study of Intel Corporation, a large semiconductor manufacturer. Here, agility is defined as the ability to satisfy customer demands by reacting effectively to changes in market stimuli. Reacting effectively does not mean reacting to every change in supply or demand. Doing so means increasing supply chain variability unnecessarily, which is amplified by the bullwhip effect. The essence of supply chain agility is determining the degree to which variability should be managed through artificial means such as safety stock, and appropriate triggers for changing production levels and inventory targets. The purpose of this research is to examine factors that influence supply chain agility and identify a cost-effective plan for achieving it. The first phase addresses the problem of identifying target inventory and customer service levels based on regression analysis of historical data and financial analysis of inventory holding costs and stock-out costs. The impact of three factors (forecast error, order lead-time, and demand variability) on the relationship between inventory and customer service level is also examined. The second phase of the research evaluates strategies for production and inventory control with the goal of finding the appropriate trade-off between minimizing cost (of holding inventory and stock-outs) and minimizing variability. Control policies based on the Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) control chart with control limits on demand forecasts are proposed to detect when tighter control of processes is necessary. A Monte Carlo supply chain simulation is used to evaluate the performance of these policies under various levels of forecast error and demand variability. Results indicate that several control chart-based policies outperform Intel's current planning policy in terms of cost without significantly increasing variability. The selection of the appropriate policy must be based on the decision-makers' desire to minimize cost compared to the desire to minimize variability, as each policy results in a trade-off between these two objectives.

Yes / Purpose: The COVID-19 outbreak has imposed extensive shocks embracing all stages of the food supply chain (FSC). Although the magnitude is still unfolding, the FSC responds with remarkable speed, to mitigate the disruptive consequences and sustain operations. This motivates us to investigate how operationalising supply chain agility (SCA) practices has occurred amid the COVID-19 crisis and expectations for how those practices could transform the supply chain in the post-COVID-19 era. Design: Following an exploratory case-based design, we examine the various agile responses that three supply chains (meat, fresh vegetables and bread) adopted and elaborate using the dynamic capability (DC) theoretical lens. Findings: First, the findings demonstrate how, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, each affected case pursued various agile responses through sensing and seizing capabilities. Sensing includes identifying and assessing the relevant opportunities and threats associated with the specific supply chain context. Seizing involves acquiring, combining and modifying the tangible and intangible resources at the firm and supply chain levels. Second, supply chain transformation is likely if firms and their supply chain develop the sustaining capability to ensure that the desirable changes outlast the crisis. Originality: This study provides a novel and unique perspective on the role of SCA in crisis—in this case, the pandemic. We synthesise the empirical stories of the agile responses in the FSC and elaborate on the DC framework, to identify theoretical and practical implications. We establish the sustaining capability as the missing DC capability for enabling transformation in the post-COVID-19 era. Practical contribution: This study provides an actionable guide for practitioners to develop agile responses to systemic changes in times of crisis and to sustain favourable changes so as to enable their outlasting the crisis. / Project 777742: EC H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017

D. Tech. (Logistics management, Faculty of Management Science), Vaal University of Technology / Nowadays, the business environment is characterised by faster technological development, customer satisfaction, shorter product life cycles, and more intense global competition. This new competitive landscape has forced firms to acquire new ways to achieve competitive advantage actively since a firm's competitive advantage is now dependent on operating efficiency and productivity across functional areas of the firm. The most successful manufacturers seem to be those that have carefully linked their internal processes to external suppliers and customers in unique supply chains. The manufacturing sector represents 15 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) of the South African commercial industry. Competitive challenges in the modern business environment have resulted in the need for firms to collaborate their business processes strategically across other business units within the supply chain. Supply chain network theory, dynamic capabilities theory, and the resource-based view theory are discussed to better understand the importance of firms' supply chain capabilities, supply chain agility, and firm performance. The primary objective of this research study was to investigate the association between supply chain capabilities (supply chain network design, supply chain information competency, and supply chain integration) and supply chain agility on firm performance in the manufacturing sector of the Gauteng province in South Africa. It also aimed to ascertain the kind of relationships between supply chain network with supply chain agility, supply chain network with firm performance, supply chain information competency with supply chain agility, supply chain integration with supply chain agility, supply chain integration with firm performance, and finally supply chain agility with firm performance. Structured questionnaires were distributed to various manufacturing firms in the Gauteng province. The data were collected from manufacturing firm managers and owners. SPSS 25.0 was used to analyse the data, and AMOS 25.0 used to perform the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and path analysis. The structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to assess the proposed model fit and to test the statistically significant relationship between the various hypotheses. The research study results revealed that supply chain technologies and supply chain vi agility positively influence firm manufacturing performance. This study contributes new knowledge to the existing literature by providing a research framework that can enhance manufacturing firms' performance and also offer practical recommendations based on the research findings for manufacturing firms and future research. Furthermore, as one of the first studies to address the association between supply chain capabilities and supply chain agility on firm performance in the Gauteng province, this study generates new insights and information, as well as outlines the strategic reasons for manufacturing firms' managers and owners to improve on their organisational relationships. Hence, the study found that firms have realised significant supply chain coordination through supply chain capabilities and supply chain agility and that firms have been able to attain strategic goals, reduce risks and improve internal and external coordination of operational processes. Keywords: supply chain network design; supply chain information competency; supply chain integration; supply chain agility; firm performance.

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