Perspectives, practices and future of supply chain flexibility

Supply Chain Flexibility (SCF) has become more necessary than ever as it offers strategic advantage. The published literature bears a good testimony to this fact and several authors have proposed different viewpoints on SCF. The interest in the philosophies and perspectives of SCF has been growing and organisations of the world have been taking a number of initiatives governed by various paradigms evolving around lean, agility, responsiveness, robustness, etc. At the moment, there are several views on SCF and other organisational innovations, which may perhaps confound a student of SCF. The purpose of this paper is to present a consolidated account of various views expressed by academicians and practitioners by bringing to the fore, various research options available in the area of SCF. The paper also addresses the relevance of various forces and the role of dynamics in managing supply chain flexibility.