Establishing agile supply networks through competence profiling

Concurrent engineering has been seen as the main means to respond to the increased complexity of engineering systems in sectors such as automotive, aerospace and defence. However, concurrent methods fail to respond to unpredicted events such as late customer requests or technological advances that dictate unexpected product or process alterations. Focusing on the organizational competence notion, the current paper introduces an agile supply network establishment process that enables evaluation of the impact of an event and suggests rapid restructuring of supply networks. The ideas described have been tested with over two hundred engineering small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the North East region of England proving to be of significant benefit to them. Participant companies are mainly engaged in the defence and aerospace industry.