Managing Demand Through the Enablers of Flexibility: The Impact of Forecasting and Process Flow Management

In recent years increased attention has been paid to integrated demand and supply chain management. The present research study discusses the main concept in this context, i. e., flexibility. In particular, we have learned from existing research work, that is difficult to link the construct “flexibility” with performance (efficiency as well as effectiveness). Therefore, we analyzed important enablers of flexibility. Based on our conceptual flexibility framework, we discussed the impact of layout, process flow management as well as the forecasting performance (error). Our results provided some interesting insights. In particular, only process flow management is linked with effectiveness as well as efficiency performance. On the other hand, layout as well as forecasting performance, is only linked with efficiency. These results demonstrate that, e. g., forecasting is not directly linked with external results like customer satisfaction. Based on these results it is possible to motivate further research activities that should investigate these complex relationships more in detail.