Military supply chain flexibility measures
Abstract
Purpose
So far, the author lacks a comprehensive definition of military supply chain (SC) flexibility, as well as performance measures to evaluate it. This paper aims to address these gaps. It seeks to develop performance measures to assess the flexibility of a military SC.
Design/methodology/approach
Volume flexibility is measured as the coefficient of variation of the demand quantity. Delivery side is measured in two stages using two ratios: customer satisfaction ratio and delivery flexibility ratio.
Findings
Building on the flexibility literature, novel performance measures were developed to assess the volume flexibility (the ability to change the level of moved products) and delivery flexibility (the ability to meet short lead times).
Research limitations/implications
This study characterizes the behaviour of a military SC by focusing on the volume and delivery sides. Efficiency, for example, is not within the scope of this analysis.
Practical implications
The results of this paper could serve as a means to compare between SCs with drastically different sizes.
Originality/value
This paper presents a novel ways to examine the flexibility of a military distribution process. The developed measures of flexibility are relevant, simple, dimensionless, and action-oriented.
Keywords
Citation
Sokri, A. (2014), "Military supply chain flexibility measures", Journal of Modelling in Management, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 78-86. https://doi.org/10.1108/JM2-10-2011-0050
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited