Strategic supply chain framework for the automotive industry

M. Ambe* and J. A. Badenhorst-Weiss

Department of Business Management, College of Economic and Management
Sciences, University of South Africa, P. O. Box 392, UNISA 0003, South Africa.
Accepted 7 June, 2010

leagile supply chain is a strategy for competitive advantage.

key issue in the industry is the reliability of the production and delivery process.
Each customer order must become a batch-size-of one, meeting exact customer
requirements in terms of specification and delivery date.
Leagile is the combination of the lean and agile paradigms within a total supply
chain strategy by positioning the decoupling point so as to best suit the need for
responding to a volatile demand downstream while providing level scheduling
upstream from the marketplace. In order to achieve leagile supply chain, the
upstream of the decoupling point should be designed to be lean while downstream
agile as shown in Figure 3. The framework is explained in terms of lean supply
chain, agile supply chain and the decoupling point. Figure 3 depicts the framework
for leagile supply chain in the automobile industry.
leagile supply chain is the strategy of the millennium that can alleviate the
automobile industry from the current challenges