Modeling Flexibility Capabilities of IT-based Supply Chain, Using a Grey-based DEMATEL Method

Abstract

New technologies, universal competition, and increased customer demands are imposing organizations to revise how they can benefit from Information Technology (IT) capabilities to do better supply chains management. One of the key essentials to keep organizations in the present economic competition is effective management of their supply chains under uncertainty. The concept of supply chain flexibility intends to specify the ability of a supply chain to perform in satisfaction under uncertainty. However, there is lack of cause and effect modelling in this area. Accordingly, this paper attempts to study the flexibility capabilities of IT-based supply chain, using a Grey-based DEMATEL Method. To this end, according to the literature, four main factors were identified as most important flexibility capabilities of IT-based supply chain which totally include 25 measurement items. Next, to evaluate the cause and effect relationships of factors an online questionnaire link distributed to professors and experts in this subject which finally 20 completed questionnaires collected. To analyze factors interactions using Grey-based DEMATEL method, firstly, experts’ opinions of grey numbers are turned into crisp numbers and all opinions are unified into a single viewpoint. Then the crisp numbers normalized in DEMATEL and total matrix of each factor is calculated. At the end, the values of R, D, R+D and R-D are calculated, which based on these criteria the cause and effect relationships of factors analyzed and flexibility capabilities of IT-based supply chain prioritized.