Analysis of SCF under sales promotional schemes: an application of interpretive structural modelling approach

In the competitive market of today, supply chain flexibility (SCF) plays crucial way to address various supply chain uncertainties. But, in diverse situations, the supply chain needs different types of flexibilities. This paper analyses the flexibility of an automobile supply chain under sales promotional schemes (SPS) to meet the demand uncertainty. Taking the opinion of supply chain experts from automobile original equipment manufacturers (OEM's), 14 SCF strategies have been identified and then using interpretive structural modelling (ISM) on the conducted survey, their interrelationships are established and a hierarchical model is developed. MICMAC analysis is done to classify the strategies into four categories viz. autonomous, dependent, linkage and independent strategies, which are based on their driving and dependence powers. Sensitivity analysis has been conducted to check the stability of the model. The thorough exposition of the model presents a handful of insights to supply chain managers to know the most important strategies affecting each other. The study helps in bridging the SCF with SPS, a huge gap existing in the literature.