The systems approach perspective on leagility

Abstract

A turbulent environment and very limited ability to make accurate forecasts triggers the need for building highly responsive organizations. What is more, there is much pressure exerted on the costs’ reduction as one of the aftermaths of the crisis 2008+. The main goal of the article is to make a contribution to the stream of research devoted to creating capabilities needed for being lean and agile as response to contemporary challenges. The design of this research is based on in-depth literature review. The system approach was deployed to include lean and agile, both concepts and practices, under one consistent model. The detailed problem under discussion was meeting logistics requirements of customers. The Ashy Law suggests having differentiated responses to turbulent environment than only lean and agile. This also affects meeting requirements of customers in the supply chain. The originality of this work lies in showing the implications of identifying logistics requirements of customers for contributing to full flexibility within the system under discussion. The consequences of the Ashby Law for reactive and proactive behaviours of agents within the system should be further discussed in future research.

Keywords

• agility
• complexity
• lean organization
• system approach