A Unified Framework for Manufacturing and Supply Chain Flexibility

This paper proposes a unified conceptual framework for understanding flexibility in manufacturing systems as well as supply chains. The framework is based on identifying the key elements and basic constructs for analysing their interrelations for possible flexibility types. With the help of this framework, several flexibility types possible in manufacturing systems and supply chains could be identified and related with the flexibility types commonly found in the literature. This framework is found to be useful as it could encompass many of the known flexibility types. It also helps in identifying some flexibility types that were not hitherto discussed in the literature. It is envisaged that developing a unified framework for understanding the supply chain flexibility and manufacturing system flexibility has significant benefits for industry. Our aim in suggesting one such framework is to motivate similar efforts for wider benefits.