Antecedents and enablers of supply chain reconfigurability and their effects on performance

Abstract

The reconfiguration of supply chain is becoming a crucial concept used to deal with market disruptions and changes such as the COVID-19 pandemic, demand uncertainty, and new technologies. It can be defined as the ability of the supply chain to change its structure and functions in order to adapt to new changes. Its assessment requires an understanding of its quantitative factors to provide indicators that are easy to interpret. Effective reconfigurability assessment can be achieved by measuring quantitatively its six characteristics (modularity, integrability, convertibility, diagnosability, scalability, and customization). This paper aims at identifying the quantitative factors of each characteristic and their inter-relationships by using Total Interpretive Structural Modelling (TISM). The structural model obtained by TISM is applied to understand the dependency quantitative factors. Based on TISM results, a classification of quantitative factors is determined using “Matrice d′Impacts Croisés, Multiplication Appliquée à un Classement” (MICMAC) analysis. This article provides a better understanding of the six characteristics previously mentioned to improve the reconfigurability of supply chains by considering the interactions between their factors. Thus, this analysis helps managers to understand the characteristics that influence the change of the supply chain structure and those that enable changing the supply chain functions in order to optimize the supply chain reconfiguration process.

The Influence of Digital Transformation on the Reconfigurability and Performance of Supply Chains: A Study of the Electronic, Machinery, and Home Appliance Manufacturing Industries in China

“…In the face of global crisis and evolving customer demand, the competition between supply chains has intensified significantly. Enterprises are compelled to reconfigure resources in response to shifting market conditions in order to manage risks stemming from supply chain disruptions [56]. Environmental changes often precipitate supply chain disruptions, imperiling organizational stability and disrupting production processes.…”

“…Scholars proved that reconfigurability has an important influence on performance [56,64]. A highly reconfigurable supply chain is well positioned to respond quickly and effectively to market fluctuations, such as shifts in customer demands, emerging trends, or competitive pressures [9].…”

Reconfiguration of Agrifood Supply Chain Management in Latin America during COVID-19: A Brief Literature Review

“…The concept of reconfiguration of the SC has been used as an approach to disruptions and changes in the market and is defined as the ability of the SC to change and modify its structure and functions, adapting to new changes [4]. In addition, reconfiguration implies the design of profitable, responsive, sustainable, and resistant networks based on data that dynamically adapt in physical and cyber spaces [30].…”

“…Reconfiguration is a strategy that identifies an SC's flexibility and agility to change its production and operations systems in response to global market trends, new technologies, and fluctuating demand. Napoleone et al [31] and Zidi et al [4] indicate that among the factors to be considered in building adaptable and reconfigurable SCs, analysis from operational levels to strategic levels and design based on cost efficiency and sustainability are included. For the implementation of the reconfiguration, aspects such as (1) decision making at a strategic level for monitoring must be analyzed, as well as (2) the physical implementation that includes building, opening, and operating facilities for manufacturing and services, and (3) the logical implementation that includes the execution of business processes related to the configuration of the SC and the support requirements of information technologies [9].…”

“…The need to radically and suddenly transform the forms of production and distribution forced companies to reconfigure their business processes, changing operating conditions on an unprecedented scale, locating resilience and supply chain (SC) configuration as a pressing need and focus of attention for analysis and research in organizations and academia [1][2][3]. Coupled with the pandemic, recent advances in information technology, the expansion of the internet, and the declining costs of disruptive technologies have fueled the rapid development of opportunities to implement new ways of creating, producing, and distributing value in configurations of SCs [4][5][6].…”