The Supply Chain Strategy Conundrum: To be Lean Or Agile or To be Lean And Agile
. design, supply constraints, etc .) . What we are proposing is a formal linkage between the marketing strategy of the business and the design of its supply chain . We have argued that the logical sequence for organisations to pursue is as follows: (1) Identify the market ª winnersº and ª qualifiersº for each market segment to be addressed . (2) Explore opportunities for the use of lean and agile thinking by reference to the space/time matrix . (3) Locate appropriate/feasible decoupling points in the supply chain . (4) Establish performance metrics to encourage the alignment of marketing and supply chain strategies . For many companies, undertaking such a review could highlight significant opportunities for improving their competitive standing . Our research has suggested that still too many companies have paid only lip-service to the idea of market orientation and have not re-engineered their supply chains to become more focused on meeting the real market winning criteria .