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This paper presents the results of a major survey and case study of UK manufacturing plants in six major industrial sectors: electronics, process, engineering (capital), engineering (consumer), household goods and food. The paper explores the conditions under which volume flexibility is required by manufacturing plants. The major driver of volume flexibility requirements in manufacturing plants was found to be demand variability regardless of differences in sector, product and other plant characteristics. Other major drivers of volume flexibility were demand uncertainty, short product life‐cycle, short product shelf life, supply chain complexity and action of competitors. The applicability of most of these drivers is independent of the industrial sector. Drivers may be generic or may be dependent on the contextual or sectoral characteristics specific to a plant. The requirement for volume flexibility is, therefore, dictated by the specific conditions which a plant is faced with, and the degree of volume flexibility required varies widely.

Many researchers have studied manufacturing flexibility, but supply chain flexibility is still an under‐investigated area. This paper aims to focus on supply flexibility, the aspects of flexibility related to the upstream supply chain. Its purpose is to investigate why and how firms increase supply flexibility.

An exploratory multiple case study was conducted. Seven Spanish manufacturers from various sectors (automotive, apparel, electronics and electrical equipment) were analysed.

The results show that firms need supply flexibility for a number of important reasons (manufacturing schedule fluctuations, JIT purchasing, manufacturer slack capacity, low level of parts commonality, demand volatility, demand seasonality and forecast accuracy), and that companies increase this type of flexibility by implementing two main strategies: “improved supplier responsiveness” and “flexible sourcing”. The results also suggest that the supply flexibility strategy selected depends on the type of uncertainty (mix, volume or delivery).

This paper has the limitations common to all case studies, such as the subjectivity of the analysis, and the questionable generality of the results. Moreover, there may be some sort of country bias because only Spanish firms have been analysed.

The study contributes to the existing literature by empirically investigating the main reasons for companies needing to increase supply flexibility and how they increase this flexibility, and suggesting some factors that could influence the selection of a particular supply flexibility strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore different drivers and volume flexibility strategies employed in manufacturing firms. It also examines contingent factors, which determine volume flexibility requirement in manufacturing firms.

Using a multi-case study approach, the study examines and analyses drivers, strategies and contingent factors that affect volume flexibility in four Indian manufacturing plants belonging to automobiles, auto ancillary, fashion apparel and electrical industry.

The empirical analysis suggests various drivers of volume flexibility and different strategies employed by firms to enhance flexibility. The study also illustrates various contingent factors that determine the need of volume flexibility in firms.

The sample of the study is majorly confined to the northern region of India. Methodologically, the analysis is solely based on the qualitative data.

The study suggests practitioners to consider a range of contingent factors, while evaluating the need of volume flexibility in manufacturing plants. Rather than relying on a single strategy, a mix of strategies should be used to develop volume flexibility in firms.

The identification of a range of strategies employed by volume flexible firms as well as contingent factors that need to be evaluated before employing volume flexibility are the major contributions of this study.

The recent shift towards accommodating flexibility in manufacturing companies and the complexity resulting from product variety highlight the significance of flexible assembly systems and designing products for them. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the requirements of a flexible assembly system for product design from the assembly system’s standpoint.

To fulfil the purpose of the paper, a literature review and a case study were performed. The case study was conducted with an interactive research approach in a global market leader company within the heavy vehicle manufacturing industry.

The findings indicate that common assembly sequence, similar assembly interfaces, and common parts are the main requirements of a flexible assembly system for product design which reduce complexity and facilitate various flexibility dimensions. Accordingly, a model is proposed to broaden the understanding of these requirements from the assembly system’s standpoint.

This study contributes to the overlapping research area of flexible assembly systems and product design.

The proposed model is largely based on practical data and clarifies the role of product design in facilitating flexibility in an assembly system. It can be used by assembly managers, assembly engineers, and product designers.

The key originality of this paper compared to the previous studies lies in presenting a novel assembly-oriented design model. The model enhances understanding of a flexible assembly system’s requirements for product design with regard to reducing complexity and managing variation in a flexible assembly system. These requirements can be applied to product design across various product families within a company’s product portfolio.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the confusion between flexibility and agility. The paper traces the evolution of agility and the evolution of flexibility over time, analyses their drivers and different elements, draws the boundaries between them and defines their relationship.

A systematic literature review of flexibility and agility was developed. Papers written between 1920 and 2017 were reviewed and analyzed using a structured review technique. The identified papers focus on flexibility and agility, relating both to manufacturing and the supply chain.

Agility is the natural evolution of flexibility. Until the 1990s, the term “flexibility” was used to refer to agility, but, because of market changes, competitiveness and the need for speed, the term “agility” was coined. While flexibility is considered as an operational ability, agility is a strategic ability that enables a firm to establish a strategic long-term vision. In fact, flexibility is an agility capability, among other capabilities such as responsiveness or speed. There are also several types of flexibility that are used as agility sub-capabilities, or as agility enablers, which further confirms the idea that flexibility is a part of agility.

This research is a systematic review of the existing literature on the concepts of flexibility and agility. Although it is theoretical, it could provide a set of hypotheses that would enable an empirical study to be conducted into how firms from different industries perceive flexibility and agility and how they implement each of them.

Flexibility and agility are two distinct characteristics that enable a firm to gain a competitive advantage by responding quickly and effectively to changing customer demand. However, there is confusion between these two concepts in the academic and professional literature, with both terms being used to refer to the same idea. Our literature review aims to draw the boundaries between flexibility and agility by analyzing the evolution of the two concepts and detailing their respective drivers and elements, in order to bring more clarity to the nature of the relationship between flexibility and agility.

The study aims to assess and prioritise the enablers of manufacturing flexibility by evaluating the degree of environmental uncertainty and manufacturing flexibility in an uncertain environment.

The study proposes a methodological approach based on fuzzy quality function deployment (FQFD), fuzzy analytical hierarchical process (FAHP) and fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (FTOPSIS) to assess and prioritise enablers of manufacturing flexibility in an uncertain environment.

The study proposes a methodological approach that can facilitate firms to concentrate on preferred enablers and assist them in formulating a strategy to develop manufacturing flexibility. The empirical case study analysis of an Indian auto-air conditioning manufacturing firm was done to illustrate the effectiveness, flexibility and feasibility of the proposed approach.

The proposed approach is limited to manufacturing flexibility. This study does not consider inter-dependencies among environmental uncertainties.

The proposed methodological approach can assist practitioners in the identification and development of the preferred enablers to improve manufacturing flexibility. Thus, practitioners can invest strategically in the right resources to improve manufacturing flexibility.

The study proposes and validates a methodological approach that simultaneously addresses drivers and enablers of manufacturing flexibility; therefore, it aims to fill the gaps of earlier studies that have majorly studied flexibility concept in an isolated way.

This study aims to explore the challenges of truck-sharing and effective ways of dealing with those in achieving supply chain collaboration and collaboration in transportation management (e.g. transport collaboration) for transport capacity expansion, and reducing carbon emission and traffic congestion for integrating environmental and social sustainability issues. This paper also reveals insights into successful shared-transportation and a reduction in empty trips.

This exploratory qualitative study was conducted by means of interviewing road carriers from the container transportation industry.

In a truck-sharing initiative, technical issues (e.g. carrying capacity) arise, some of which involve the container truck and some involving constraints that cannot be controlled, such as driving restrictions, seaport operating hours, and the presence of the large number of container categories pertaining to the industry. Therefore, a significant amount of “structural empty running” may always prevail. It should also be noted that some, seemingly vital, constraints can actually be changed, treated, or modified for better truck-sharing outcomes, such as building a foundation of trust and establishing coordination among road carriers.

A probable solution to the problem of increasing hinterland transport capacity is to make appropriate use of the huge number of idle truck slots that exist; this could be achieved by encouraging the acceptance of the challenges of truck-sharing realistically and suggesting an approach to handling them.

To broaden its appeal, truck-sharing initiatives must be able to overcome challenges by combining theoretical insight with an understanding of the practical aspects of such an endeavor. This original research fosters knowledge that is unique and which also has real-life applications in maritime logistics studies and supply chain literature for both port authorities and container road carriers.

Changes are inevitable in risky and uncertain business environments of today’s volatile supply chains. The concept of flexibility originates from this need to mitigate the ill-effects of risks and uncertainty in supply chains. In this paper, an attempt is made to present an exhaustive review on supply chain flexibility (SCF) and its implementation to gain strategic advantages.

A citation analysis method is employed in this paper to discuss, analyse and apprehend the conceptual, empirical, analytical and simulation studies done in this field. In this paper, about 110 papers on flexibility from many reputed journals are examined to study and assimilate various aspects of flexibility.

SCF embraces a unified process-based view including the core processes such as procurement, sourcing, distribution and logistics and mitigates uncertainty or risks involved. The review helps to assimilate the key knowledge about relevant practices in SCF and helps to draw implementing strategies while offering managerial insight on the subject.

Citation and co-citation analysis is done to review the SCF literature. Efforts are made to investigate relevant papers from various journals regarding its ability to mitigate risk or aid in making strategic decision. The study, however, is limited to certain industries in the papers as per chosen approach here. The strategies described in here may further be verified by the researchers and practitioners pertaining to their study or industries focused.

It provides managerial insight for practitioners on how to use flexibility within the firm and across supply chain while considering various trade-offs.

This paper is unique as a review paper, as it encompasses various kinds of studies done on SCF from conceptual models to mathematical models. Further, it briefs with the current practices in industries/SC towards being flexible. It talks of various trade-offs in pursuit of flexibility and concludes while suggesting numerous research gaps and opening new dimensions for SCF research. It offers many managerial and academic implications.

The study is designed to explore the drivers of customer satisfaction of leading mobile network providers in a high‐growth market like Kolkata a metropolitan city in India.

A framework was developed based on earlier study of eminent researchers pertinent to customer satisfaction of mobile network providers in Germany, France, Korea, Canada, the USA and Greece. The construct flexibility was considered as a new determinant for customer satisfaction. For this data were collected from 277 respondents and pertinent analysis were made using multivariate techniques.

The study finds that generic requirements, price, and flexibility are major drivers of customer satisfaction of mobile network providers and brand wise relevance of these key determinants.

The fixed line telephone directory was the sampling frame, and all the respondents considered in the survey had a fixed line but there are situations where customer subscribes only to mobile phones. It is also necessary to study other metropolitan cities of India to validate the results we have obtained for Kolkata. Originality/value – The current research has taken into account new driver of customer satisfaction in a high‐growth market and this is the first study on drivers of customer satisfaction of leading mobile network providers in the city of Kolkata, India.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and evaluate the relationships among the flexibility enablers and to prepare a hierarchy of these enablers to know their influences over each other in global supply chain. The framework suggests that the priority of enablers in supply chain should be determined on the basis of their driving power and dependency.

Various enablers used by researchers and practitioners for flexibility management of global supply chain have been identified. These enablers have been classified as strategic, operational and performance‐based enablers. Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) is used to establish mutual relationships among the flexibility enablers and to prepare a hierarchy‐based model.

It has been observed that some enablers having high‐driving power and low dependency are of strategic importance. These enablers require more attention while other enablers based on operations and performances are dependents of strategic enablers.

The index of enablers based on driving power and dependency provides an insight to supply chain managers to make the entire supply chain highly flexible and help them to respond to global uncertainties.

Presentation of enablers in the form of hierarchy using ISM and ranking them into various driving power and dependent categories is a good effort to make flexible global supply chain.