Flexibility and agility: evolution and relationship

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to clarify the confusion between flexibility and agility. The paper traces the evolution of agility and the evolution of flexibility over time, analyses their drivers and different elements, draws the boundaries between them and defines their relationship. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review of flexibility and agility was developed. Papers written between 1920 and 2017 were reviewed and analyzed using a structured review technique. The identified papers focus on flexibility and agility, relating both to manufacturing and the supply chain. Findings Agility is the natural evolution of flexibility. Until the 1990s, the term “flexibility” was used to refer to agility, but, because of market changes, competitiveness and the need for speed, the term “agility” was coined. While flexibility is considered as an operational ability, agility is a strategic ability that enables a firm to establish a strategic long-term vision. In fact, flexibility is an agility capability, among other capabilities such as responsiveness or speed. There are also several types of flexibility that are used as agility sub-capabilities, or as agility enablers, which further confirms the idea that flexibility is a part of agility. Research limitations/implications This research is a systematic review of the existing literature on the concepts of flexibility and agility. Although it is theoretical, it could provide a set of hypotheses that would enable an empirical study to be conducted into how firms from different industries perceive flexibility and agility and how they implement each of them. Originality/value Flexibility and agility are two distinct characteristics that enable a firm to gain a competitive advantage by responding quickly and effectively to changing customer demand. However, there is confusion between these two concepts in the academic and professional literature, with both terms being used to refer to the same idea. Our literature review aims to draw the boundaries between flexibility and agility by analyzing the evolution of the two concepts and detailing their respective drivers and elements, in order to bring more clarity to the nature of the relationship between flexibility and agility.

Project performance prediction model linking agility and flexibility demands to project type

“…Other authors like Ganguly et al (2009), Cegarra‐Navarro et al (2016), Sushil (2015), and Tseng and Lin (2011) deal with enterprise agility matters. Abdelilah et al (2018) also describe the evolution of the flexibility concept to agility among the years (1920 to 2017), making an alignment of their findings to the concepts originally proposed by Baker (1996). All these works have in common the actual concern of organizations in responding to volatile market places by means of analyzing different scenarios and developing solutions in order to keep them competitive.…”

Manufacturing and Supply Chain Flexibility: Building an Integrative Conceptual Model Through Systematic Literature Review and Bibliometric Analysis

“…Additionally, the broader term "supply chain*" was included as a secondary keyword to guarantee the search being sufficiently inclusive to capture most relevant articles within the scope of our research objective. Thus, nine different Boolean two-by-two combinations of these primary and secondary keywords were used (see Figure 1), considering as search criteria title, abstract and keywords, in line with previous research (Fahimnia et al 2015;Yu et al 2015;Esmaelikia et al 2016;Grover and Kar 2017;Brozovic 2018;Abdelilah et al 2018). Specifically, to capture the intersection of the MF and SCF domains, the connector AND was selected for these two-by-two combinations.…”

Multilevel Antecedents of Organizational Speed: The Exemplary Case of a Small Italian R&D Organization

“…The literature has widely recognized the importance of strategic change, especially in dynamic environments, and has associated it with the reconfiguration of the resources and capabilities an organization possesses (e.g., [21]). In this context, agility and flexibility are the most used terms by the literature to refer to the ability organizations have to adapt to the changing environment and satisfy market demand [22]. However, the two terms (i.e., flexibility and agility) are often used interchangeably, blurring the boundaries between them [22].…”

“…In this context, agility and flexibility are the most used terms by the literature to refer to the ability organizations have to adapt to the changing environment and satisfy market demand [22]. However, the two terms (i.e., flexibility and agility) are often used interchangeably, blurring the boundaries between them [22]. Recently, some articles have tried to shed light on this issue, highlighting that, since "agility emphasizes speed and flexibility as the primary attributes of an agile organization" [23], flexibility seems to be just a component of agility, which is a more encompassing concept.…”

“…Recently, some articles have tried to shed light on this issue, highlighting that, since "agility emphasizes speed and flexibility as the primary attributes of an agile organization" [23], flexibility seems to be just a component of agility, which is a more encompassing concept. In other words, agility has been recognized by some authors as a natural evolution of flexibility since fast market changes and global competition, which characterize the current competitive arena, have also emphasized the need for speed: flexibility is thus "an agility capability, among other capabilities such as responsiveness or speed" [22] (p. 1138). Along the same lines, Singh et al [24] and, more recently, Baškarada and Koronios [25] further argue that agility enables a company to respond to the external stimuli producing changes along two independent dimensions: magnitude of change and rate of variety change, which respectively refer to flexibility and speed relative to the competitors.…”