The role of human factors in agile supply chains

It is becoming impossible to remove or ignore sources of turbulence and volatility in markets. Hence, supply chain managers must accept uncertainty, but they still need to develop a strategy that enables them to match supply and demand at an acceptable cost. The ability to achieve this has been termed 'supply chain agility'. The aim of this paper is to represent the effect of human factors on agile supply chains. Various human factors affecting the agility of an organisation are identified. These factors interact with each other and their overall effect helps an organisation in attaining agile-enabled needs. In this article Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) has been used to evolve relationships among these human factors. The study concludes with a discussion on these human factors and the managerial implications. [Submitted 21 November 2007; Accepted 05 February 2008]