THE AGILE SUPPLY CHAIN IN TURBULENT AND VOLATILE MARKET

Agility is the fundamental characteristic of a supply chain needed for survival in turbulent and volatile markets, which are becoming normal, as product life cycles shorten and environmental forces create additional uncertainty resulting in higher risk in the supply chain management. Agility further helps in providing the right product, at the right time to the consumer, which is the main objective of any supply chain. Being responsive is an increasingly important skill for firms in today's global economy; thus firms must be agile. Naturally, it follows that an organization's agility depends on its supply chain being agile. However, achieving supply chain agility is a function of other abilities within the organization, specifically supply chain flexibility and technology integration. The integration enables a firm to tap its supply chain flexibility which in turn results in higher supply chain agility and ultimately higher competitive business performance.