Analysis of manufacturing supply chain agility performance using Taguchi loss functions and design of experiment

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the agility performance level of manufacturing supply chains using Taguchi loss functions (TLFs) and design of experiment (DoE).

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed methodology is used for capturing the various agility losses using appropriate TLFs and the aggregated agility loss is calculated at different situations using DoE. The aggregated agility loss is analysed for comparing manufacturing supply chain agility performance.

Findings

The proposed methodology was applied to three Indian auto component supply chains, i.e. X, Y and Z. In total, 27 experiments were carried out using DoE and obtained results show that agility performance level is the highest for X followed by Z, whereas agility performance level is the least for Y.

Research limitations/implications

The proposed methodology is generic in nature and can be applied to a specific environment for comparing performance of different supply chains. The user has to identify the relevant agility enablers and capture the appropriate TLFs for the specific environment in which agility performance level has to be calculated and compared.

Practical implications

The proposed methodology provides an effective approach for evaluating agility performance. It can be used by the supply chain manger to assess the supply chain agility performance level of own company with its competitors. These comparisons will help the manufacturing company to find the areas where it should focus.

Originality/value

Many studies and researches related to implementation and evaluation of agile manufacturing are reported in the literature but very few studies are available for evaluating the supply chain agility performance. This study will definitely provide a guideline for measuring and comparing manufacturing supply chain agility performance in general and Indian automotive supply chain in specific.

Citation

Routroy, S., Bhardwaj, A., Sharma, S.K. and Rout, B.K. (2018), "Analysis of manufacturing supply chain agility performance using Taguchi loss functions and design of experiment", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 25 No. 8, pp. 3296-3319. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-12-2017-0328