AN APPLICATION OF INTERPRETIVE STRUCTURAL MODELING TO ASSESS AGILITY INDEX

In the volatile manufacturing era instability and unpredictability of markets create negative impacts in the business environment. The need to respond to ever changing environments has been addressed in recent years by the concept of agility. Agility is defined as the capability to survive in a competitive environment of continuous and unpredictable changes by reacting quickly and effectively to changing market. Over the years, manufacturing organizations could not cultivate all the necessary resources to compete and remain successful and have atlast realized that agility is their last hope for survival. The principal problem may be due to the lack of proper focus on analyzing the enablers needed to improve agility and assessing Agility Index. This attempt is to overcome such issues and create effective supply chains by developing Interpretive Structural Models (ISM) based on interrelationships between factors and understanding driver dependence power using the Structural Self Interaction Matrix (SSIM) and Graph Theoretic Approach (GTA). Identification of levels of impact of supply chain enablers and classification of supply chain enablers in order to surface the driver enablers will aid modern supply chain managers in conditions of chaos. The collective results of ISM have finally been comprehended into a quantitative model using permanent functions which has effectively been deployed for assessment of Agility Index which is a coveted expanse in the domain of supply chain agility.