PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the agile supply chain management practices adopted by UK clothing retailers in order to effectively manage the supply of innovative, high‐margin, high‐fashion content product offerings in a complex global environment.Design/methodology/approachA case study approach was adopted examining the whole of the global retail fashion supply chain, from typical UK‐based retailers through to their main production and logistics suppliers based in two low‐cost locations, China and Romania. The cases of the UK retailers were followed by a study tour of China and Romania, where ten cases of fabric and finishing manufacturers, intermediaries and logistic providers were carried out.FindingsMany aspects of accepted risk management and agile practice, such as market sensitivity, postponement activities and collaborative information‐sharing partnerships were apparent in the early product definition and the later product delivery stages of the supply chain. However, the responsibility for supply, including the key aspect of managing the complex supply network, was almost exclusively left to intermediaries located in low‐cost countries. These intermediaries in the main could best achieve agile supply from a significantly underutilized low‐cost country supply network through a traditional adversarial price and lead time auction sourcing process.Research limitations/implicationsWhile the cases considered reflected what seemed to be a typical and widely adopted approach to managing such a supply chain, this may not, of course, be the only approach taken by organisations in the clothing industry.Originality/valueBy examining a whole supply chain associated with agile supply in an important sector, the paper identifies the relative importance of some existing practices and brings into sharper focus those most relevant to this type of supply. The paper also identifies key elements of contemporary supply chain management practice, namely the growing use of global supply for innovative products and the essential and valuable role played by intermediaries in such supply chains.

Established supply chain management paradigms such as leanness, agility, and sustainability have received increased attention in the literature, but mainly as separate topics. However, while the importance of sustainability as a competitive priority has grown significantly in recent years, companies still try to reconcile the pressures of enhancing their supply chain efficiency and effectiveness. Thus, understanding what is the best way for companies to design and implement a system of practices that meets, on the one hand, the environmental and social requirements of a wide set of stakeholders and, on the other hand, the need to be lean (efficient and waste free) and/or agile (fast and flexible to the needs of the market place) is critical. Our paper develops a systematic literature review addressing the integration of lean, agile and sustainable supply chain management paradigms. 73 papers are analysed, deriving 6 types of integration between lean & sustainable and agile & sustainable supply chain paradigms. To achieve each type of integration, a set of practices are highlighted. Interestingly, the same practices can support different integration types. The paper discusses possible reasons behind these differences and provides future research directions. We suggest further studies should be devoted to investigating the agile e sustainable paradigms integration more in depth as well as the effect of including social dimension when considering the integration between established and sustainable supply chain paradigms. Moreover, we address the lack of empirical studies and the need to take an evolutionary perspective when looking at the integration. Finally, we suggest developing conceptual and empirical studies on whether and how integration between paradigms is contingent upon the strategic relevance of sustainability.

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The paper explores the meaning of flexibility in the context of lean, agile and leagile supply networks and articulates a supply network flexibility framework. Two key 'sources' of flexibility are investigated: Vendor Flexibility and Sourcing Flexibility. The paper introduces an extension of the 'leagility' concept beyond the simple material flow decoupling point concept. Two new types of Leagility are put forward: (1) Leagile with Vendor Flexibility Systems, which combine the use of agile vendors with lean sourcing practices and (2) Leagile with Sourcing Flexibility Systems, which combine the use of lean vendors with agile sourcing practices. Case studies of two UK based specialist fashion retailers' supply networks are presented in order to gain insights into the sourcing strategies used and the sources of flexibility employed by retailers at supply network level. A new taxonomy that dynamically links Vendor and Sourcing Flexibility with lean, agile and leagile supply network strategies is proposed. We suggest that the proposed taxonomy can be used as a guideline for firms designing and managing parallel supply pipelines that match different operating environments. The findings add to the understanding of the ways in which the two sources of supply network flexibility (Vendor and Sourcing) interact in practice and provide evidence of the ways in which companies can strike balances between these sources, as well as the effects that can be achieved and some of the trade-offs involved.