VIRTUAL TEAMING IN THE AGILE SUPPLY CHAIN

This paper discusses the information flows in the supply chain, and identifies knowledge and expertise as “richer ” more capable entities for its management than data or information. It briefly explores how the structure of the automotive supply chain is changing due to the pressures of increasing complexity and urgency. Then it highlights the inevitability of instability in the supply chain, through a discussion on turbulence. Agility is identified as a response for coping with this uncertainty. The tool identified for introducing agility in the supply chain is Virtual Teaming. It achieves this by forming collaborative supply chain partnerships, unconstrained by geography that can quickly apply knowledge and expertise as corrective and preventive mechanisms. A survey of the suppliers to a major automotive manufacturer has highlighted the need for this form of working. A major function of the information flows in the supply chain is in providing control information. This function is threatened because the structure of the supply chain is changing due to the pressures of increasing complexity and urgency. Tiered supply chains can lead to an increasing possibility of disturbances in the material flow in the supply change, often initiated by frequent and unexpected changes in demand. These disturbances have been termed "turbulence", which can be classified in five categories, design, volume, mix, schedule and process [1]. A number of approaches such as concurrent engineering and late configuration [2] have been proposed to reduce turbulence. However these do not reduce the occurrence of some of the more advanced forms of dynami