Agile or Lean In The Supply Chain?

As the pandemic wore on, organizations began the slow shift from lean to reducing supplier risk. Inventories went from lean to being beefed up, and there was a willingness to spend the money to make sure the demand was met and that organizations could deal with a supplier change from four weeks to a year. No company wanted to be handicapped from materials shortages. An agile supply chain became the necessity to keep the economy flowing, and the best way to achieve the move between lean and agile was by migrating to digital processes.

As this shift continued, the need for resilient supply networks became the priority. Yes, the pandemic showed how the digital transformation could keep organizations operating according to need, but now there were questions around the length of time needed to transform. 

Traditional project approaches, legacy systems, and processes are taking too long, and C-suite executives are now at the point where they have begun to question the increased costs necessary to trust service levels as well as the speed at which they can drive end-to-end transformation. This uncertainty plagues every organization across the globe and it is clear that the systems and processes of the past have failed to prepare for the desired future state.

It seems like businesses are forced to choose their supply chain management depending on external factors. Go lean or go agile. It’s one or the other. There might be some opportunities lost by going lean—orders that can’t be filled, for example, because there isn’t enough supply on hand—but it is still a lot more cost-effective than going agile.

With the right digital transformation, there is no reason why a company can’t do both, be lean and agile at the same time. If your company is going through a digital supply chain transformation, and you’re looking at ways to build resilient supply chain networks, you should be able to pull whatever leverage you need at any time.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulnoble/2021/08/11/agile-or-lean-in-the-supply-chain-you-can-have-both/