Creating Agile Supply Chains for Competitive Advantage

Gaining competitive advantage has always been an important management objective. Managers are constantly searching for new ideas and ways of differentiating their company or products from those of competitors. In recent years, markets, technologies, and competition are all moving more quickly than at any time in the industrial history. As a result, perspectives of what makes a company competitive have changed throughout the years. In the most recent decades, managers have turned to the concepts and practices of quality management, just-in time manufacturing, and business process reengineering, to name a few, in an effort to create competitive advantage for their businesses. This paper examines some proven ways to enhance a company's agility in the face of a dynamic marketDiace. These proven manufacturing practices include: (1) achieving strategic flexibility, (2) converting to a demand-pull production system, (3) maximizing the potential of integrated information systems, and (4) enhancing workforce productivity.