How companies are leveraging agility to stand out during a crisis?

Hello, readers! I'm Mathews currently pursuing 2nd year MBA at Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore.   Here's my new blog post!

    Being in the midst of IPL season, you would have probably wondered how well some players perform exhibiting various important characteristics. There exists the idea of agility in their performances, where they maintain and control their body movements in order to respond quickly to the situation.

    Agility in business is similar. Businesses need to respond quickly by adapting to the environment and supply chain is an area where agility is particularly important, as products must be produced and delivered without any delay. The goal is to respond quickly to uncertainties in demand and supply, as well as to flexibly manage introduction of new products. 

Supply chain agility can be of two types: structural and operational agility. 

Structural agility is the ability to change supply based on network and organization design. To attain structural agility, an organization needs to understand the supply chain volatility and build supply chain assets or additional facilities in order to meet varying demands.

Operational agility is the ability to change supply based on operations decisions. To attain operational agility, an organization must make quick decisions to adjust utilization of existing supply chain assets in order to handle fluctuating demand.

How agility is helping various companies to handle varying demand during uncertain business environments?

    Two companies illustrates the efficient use of agility to respond to crisis. Issinnova is an Italian start up which manufactures recreational snorkelling masks by using 3D printing technology. Identifying the acute shortage of respiratory ventilators, they leveraged   the flexibility inherent in its 3D printing capabilities in order to produce ventilator masks instead of snorkeling masks.

    Similarly, when General Motors was required to manufacture respiratory ventillators made a contract with Ventec Life Systems. Using their extensive supply chain, they shipped parts common to ventilators and autos to Kokomo, Indiana, plant for assembly. GM already having technological capabilities in automobile electronics, switched to ventilators easily by adjusting its supply chain.

    Speed and agility are interdependent factors and integrating the ability to make quick decisions to utilize supply chain assets with structural agility could enable businesses to sail through various crisis.