外文翻译--敏捷供应链-多变的市场竞争.docVIP

毕业论文（设计） 外文翻译 外文原文 The Agile Supply Chain : Competing in Volatile Markets Industrial Marketing Management, Vol 29. 2000 Martin Christopher Cranfield School of Management, UK Turbulent and volatile markets are becoming the norm as life-cycles shorten and global economic and competitive forces create additional uncertainty. The risk attached to lengthy and slow-moving logistics ‘pipelines’ has become unsustainable, forcing organizations to look again at how their supply chains are structured and managed. This paper suggests that the key to survival in these changed conditions is through ‘agility’, in particular by the creation of responsive supply chains. The importance of time as a competitive weapon has been recognized for some time .The ability to be able to meet the demands of customers for ever-shorter delivery times and to ensure that supply can be synchronized to meet the peaks and troughsofdemandis clearly of critical importance in this era of ‘time-based competition . To become more responsive to the needs of the market requires more than speed, it also requires a high level of maneuverability that today has come to be termed agility. What is Agility? Agility is a business-wide capability that embraces organizational structures, information，systems, logistics processes and, in particular, mindsets. A key characteristic of an agile organization is flexibility. Indeed the origins of agility as a business concept lies inflexible manufacturing systems (FMS). Initially it was thought that the route to manufacturing flexibility was through automation to enable rapid change and thus a greater responsiveness to changes in product mix or volume. Later this idea of manufacturing flexibility was extended into the wider business context and the concept of agility as an organizational orientation was born. Agility should not be confused with ‘leanness’. Lean is about doing more with less. The term is often used