Which practices are lean, agile and resilient? Literature review and practitioners' perspective

Abstract

The need to be lean in terms of cost effectiveness, agile in terms of customer responsiveness and resilient in terms of being aware of risks and becoming ready to encounter them and passing them in the best way possible, is an undeniable issue in the supply chain. While the three concepts seem to overlap, they also have some distinct parts and this causes the confusion presented in both the literature and practice. The purpose is then to clarify the boundaries of the three concepts to reduce this confusion. The research is empirical. Survey data were collected from 185 companies from different industries in Germany. In line with literature, this empirical research shows that there are some practices that purely affect leanness, agility or resilience and there are other practices that affect leanness and agility both, agility and resilience both and finally the three of leanness, agility and resilience.