“Perfection is a fallacy that leads that leads to over planning, procrastination and failure to

ship; agile is about focusing on delivering the best thing possible in a set time interval. “ Vince
Lombardi

Comparison of lean and agile

In the modern business world volume production with reliability and cost as a differentiator
under the flag of lean system is not enough to serve the purpose. Today market is variety
dominated where the differentiator is speed and responsiveness and this cure has been
provided by the application of agile. The new breed of enterprises such as Zara, Dell and Cisco
are playing smartly by responding to the customers in a fast- moving environment, where the
life cycles are short and variety reigns. The renewed competitive arena calls for more nimble
businesses and more agile supply chains.

The need for supply chain agility comes from the consumer. Here, uncertainties can affect the
customers behavior which will bring unpredictability.

Agile Supply Chain Framework

Pakistan’s Metropolitan population, food and CPEC

Pakistan is one of the largest producers of industrial crops. Such crops can be
used in the production of a variety of different products such as cereals,
macaroni, spaghetti, pasta etc. Good food processing techniques such as
extrusion are being utilized in several developed countries, and are now finding
its way to Pakistan as well. Currently, the extrusion technology is being utilized in
Pakistan in the processing of food products like cereals, pasta, snacks etc.
CPEC focuses on all the agricultural food produce (primary). This sector alone
accounts for 21% of Pakistan’s GDP and includes the primary processing of fruits,
vegetables, flour, sugar, pulses and grains. More than 22 varieties of vegetables
are produced in Pakistan and there are approximately 1,400 flour mills. The
country is ranked 5th in the world cane acreage and 9th in sugar cane production.
Pulses are the most important source of vegetable protein in Pakistan and are
cultivated on 5% of the total cropped area.

Agricultural Development and Poverty Alleviation by CPEC

CPEC AS DRIVER OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT (FDI) IN PAKISTAN: AN

OPPORTUNITY TO RESHAPE THE ECONOMY By Dr. Shahid Rashid

Agriculture sector of Pakistan needs to be strengthened by means of China and

Pakistan Cooperation. It must be upgraded and revolutionized. In accomplishing
this, both China and Pakistan must play their roles in this context. Water-saving
agricultural zones based on modern technology must be constructed. Water
efficient technologies should be introduced. Production of horticulture products
must be boosted.
Conceptual Framework (CPEC Initiatives and Food Security: Moderating Role of

Stakeholder’s Involvement)

DEVELOPMENT OF THE CASS‐CLAY FOOD SYSTEMS INITIATIVE AND THE FOOD

SYSTEMS PLAN (Case study)

In late 2010 the Cass‐Clay Food Systems Initiative (CCFSI) Steering Committee was
created in response to the growing local interest in accessing healthy food for all
residents and providing opportunities to produce and consume locally grown
food. The goal of CCFSI is to impact all levels of the local food system to assure
that residents have access to safe, nutritious, and affordable foods. The CCFSI
Steering Committee includes members from the University of

Minnesota Extension Service, North Dakota State University Cass County

Extension Service, Fargo Cass Public Health, and Clay County Public Health. Soon
after the formation of the CCFSI Steering Committee, CCFSI recruited members
from all sectors of the local food system to form the Initiative’s Planning
Committee.

forms of off-farms sales, placed in the LAS.

Suggestions by CCFSI for agricultural development in metropolitan population

Economic development

Food access

Food infrastructure

Outreach and education

Urban agriculture

Suggestions given by China for agricultural development in Pakistan through

CPEC

Long Term Plan For China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (2017-2030) w w w . c p e c

.gov.pk

China and Pakistan should give full play to their own comparative advantages to
strengthen agricultural infrastructure construction within the CPEC coverage and
play their own roles in agricultural personnel training, technical exchanges and
cooperation.

They should cooperate in key construction areas such as biological breeding,

production, processing, storage and transportation, infrastructure construction,
disease prevention and control, water resources utilization, conservation and
production, land development and remediation, ICT-enabled agriculture and
marketing of agricultural products to promote the systematic, large-scale,
standardized and intensified construction of the agricultural industry. They should
promote the transition from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture in the
regions along the CPEC to effectively boost the development of local agricultural
economy and help local people get rid of poverty and become better off.

- Strengthen the upgrading of agricultural infrastructure in the regions along the

CPEC.

- Promote the construction of water-saving modern agricultural zones, and

increase the development and remediation of medium- and low-yielding land to
achieve efficient use of resources.

- Strengthen drip irrigation technology for water efficiency.

- Strengthen cooperation in the fields such as crop farming, live stock breeding,
forestry and food growing, and aquatic and fishery in the regions along the CPEC,
with the highlight on technical exchange and cooperation in the fields of
development of comprehensive agricultural production capacity, construction of
farmland water conservancy facility and agricultural products circulation facility.,.
- Improve post-harvest handling, storage and transportation of agricultural
products, and innovate in marketing and sales models.

- Improve water resources operation and management, strengthen development

of pastoral areas and desert, and promote application of remote sensing
technology.

Challenges in FMCG’s Supply Chain

In Pakistan, consumer product market has expended many folds in recent years.
Indeed, for both large foreign and smaller domestic FMCG firms, participation in
the FMCG segment requires a long-term view when it comes to investment and
presence, along with sustainable growth. It is also necessary for FMCGs operating
in Pakistan to be flexible enough to respond to local dynamics, while
simultaneously establishing or maintaining close distribution hubs and creating a
powerful marketing presence. Unilever, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, L’Oréal and the
Coca-Cola companies were the top FMCG multinational corporations (MNCs)
operating in Pakistan in 2018.

Currently, the government is giving priority in expanding and promoting local

agro-based business in the country. This is a huge advantage to any business.
Social changes: The society is changing so as people, people are becoming very
conscious about what they are consuming. This is a good prospect for beverage
industry. Now-a-days, people lack interest in drinks like Coke, Pepsi and are more
inclined towards having juice, tea and when they are outside, having mineral
water. May be now the rate is very low, but it is increasing. It shows the prospect
for FMCG products.

The main problems that FMCG supply chain faces are:

The Marketing Challenge: It is of vital importance to understand that the

customer journey and the new ways and opportunities for connecting with the
consumer are very different. Companies must make consumers understand the
importance of brands and know how to connect with them, using all available
channels.

Multichannel Sales Equality. Companies have been working in recent years to

understand the sales equality of prices, promotions and discounts offered to their
clients. The value chain has become destructured and this requires an exhaustive
analysis of the contribution made by each link of the chain. It is necessary to
develop a concept of “multichannel sales equality” so a consumer will not
perceive incoherence in the price paid for a product depending on the purchase
channel or area.

Global: Business owners of any company must undergo “smart”

internationalization. Internationalization is not just exporting. We must
understand how consumers behave in the country of origin and what their
preferences are to adapt our products, labels, formats, etc. to their demands.

Organizational Model. Another major challenge of this period is the development

of organizational models from several perspectives:

- The organization chart itself. Distinguishing between the actual business and the
future business.

- Including younger employees in our organizations will help us better understand

the consumer and “impel” the organization in all of its areas.

- Get everyone accustomed to multinational environments and less hierarchical,

more matrix-like organization charts with common, shared goals.
Innovation. Innovation ratios have been truly poor in recent years. Despite all of
the difficulties, innovation must be a key strategy for any company, we must
invest in truly innovative products that entail added value for categories and,
especially, for consumers. The perception of innovation should not only focus on
the product or format, we must also think about transversal innovation.

Efficient management of Prices and Promotions. In markets with stunted growth,

optimizing the positioning of prices and promotions by aligning these with their
incremental value and with the strategic role you want your brands to play in the
market is the main source for increasing the EBIT that may result.

Generate Value. The mission of any company of the mass market in Pakistan is to
increase the consumption of food and beverages to thereby enlarge the market.
Before competing, a company must together generate value for the
sector/consumer to make the pie bigger.

It is important for FMCG companies to focus more on the small local stores and
groceries for their promotional activity, combining both the push and pull
strategies. Sales promotions are found to be the most effective tools for
generating sales of FMCG therefore, focus should be made on sales promotions.
An effective distribution system is the most significant issue in product marketing
whereas FMCG Company should also develop their research and development
activities. Most of the times, it is noticed that consumer products are out of stock,
therefore, companies should make sure the availability of the product in the
market. FMCG companies should make an efficient distribution team to facilitate
their business activities. They may go for distributorship business to make sure
the availability of their brand product in the time of national or political crises. To
develop this sector government should take an effective task to avoid fake
product marketing and illegal business activities.

For the next few years, companies should focus on ramping up their operations to
meet growing demand from MAC households in big cities of Pakistan. But at the
same time, they should begin laying the groundwork for a broader expansion as
the MAC population continues to grow and as buying power spreads swiftly
throughout the country. The strong brand consciousness of Pakistani consumers
suggests that the companies that can now establish themselves as trustworthy,
build market share, and develop a reputation for delivering good quality will be
those that reap the biggest rewards in what promises to be one of world’s next
big growth markets. Pakistan’s consumer and retail sector has strong growth
prospects given increasing disposable incomes and changing lifestyles, while new
taxes in the government budget could reduce consumer spending, rising incomes
means a shift to higher spending lifestyles.

Implementation of agile on agriculture based enterprise

Orgopest is a company that deals with agricultural lands and agricultural

products. To survive in this evolving business world Orgopest has applied lean
model but to attain the following goals it is essential to apply agile on the supply
chain.

Suggestions
1- Virtual Integration
2- Set up a very high level of market sensitivity
3- Improved process integration
4- Build a dynamic network
 5- Postponement Strategy
6- Getting it right from WITHIN

Agile supply chain framework

Virtual Integration
Agility implies that the supply chain is able to respond to the changes in the local market
requirements and much of these can perhaps be the opportunities. To do this, agile supply
chain must be able to leverage skills, assets and other resources across the divisional units in
the local region in which they operate. This means they need to establish the shared goals and
communicate them across the supply chain and work toward them jointly in harmony. The
bound between organizations created by the shared goals does not necessarily vertical where
the ownership consolidates. In fact, typically, it creates the virtual integration – the vertical
integration without being so. Virtual integration is characterised by informal and flexible and
dynamic relationships between the divisional units and different sectors of the supply chain.
The governance of such integration explicitly does not get involved with initiatives that are
specific to an individual business. It does not centrally control the supply chain operations, but
rather it supports and facilitates larger or overall supply chain initiatives from which many
parts of the supply chain can and should benefit.
The virtual integration also provides senior management with a method for supporting and
steering direction on most important direction. As the structure and processes have been kept
minimum in the virtual integration, and individual unit involvement remains fully empowered,
the supply chain becomes more agile and responsive. Orgopest will develop the virtual
integration by creating connections with all relevant departments. It will sign MOU with
Unilever for the SUNRISE project (Combined venture of Unilever and Oxfam) to provide
trainings (for bringing innovations in agricultural lands by drip irrigation, tunnel farming and
greenhouse maintenance) to the local vendors that provide vegetables I.e. onions and
potatoes to Unilever. A group of vendors in a metropolitan region will be selected and they
will be given trainings as and when required. Whenever, there will be a need of a particular
training, orgopest will provide customized training sessions for the farmers and vendors of
Uniliver.

Benefits of virtual integration

Set up a very high level of market sensitivity
Market sensitivity means that the supply chain’s internal measures, whatever it may be, are
sourced directly from and linked closely with the external market that the supply chain is
operated in. All too often, we see performance measures and business assessment are based
on the data, information from with the internal operation and mostly generated within the
supply chain. This will most probably misguide the management and drive the supply chain
away from its ultimate objective of serving the market. What a truly agile supply chain do in
terms of performance measure and operational improvement is to set up a very high level of
market sensitivity. Such market sensitivity has two implications. First is to the internal
performance measure.

Every measure must be immediately or ultimately linked to the consumers in the market place.
This means linking internal customers and external customers all to the ultimate end-
consumers. To do this, a causal map from what really customer care about to every operation
the business delivers must be meticulously drawn out. SD models

Causal Map

Second, is to quick responsiveness. How quick can a supply chain respond to the market
change is a primary measure for the agility of the supply chain. Its attainment is largely
dependent on how closely the supply chain is able to sense the sudden changes of the market
behaviour. Zara is able to have the market sensitivity because they created process of online
market feedback from their stores through PDF units. Dell is able to have their market
sensitivity by creating a web-based distribution and service channel (whole sale, commission
agents, etc).

Orgopest, Oxfam and Unilever will work collectively and it will be ensured that in a CPEC
effected metropolitan population not only men and women both are working but they have a
direct access to the customer service representative of Unilever and Oxfam that provides 24/7
service to answer the quarriers of the local vendors. If a service is demanded by Unilever for
the SUNRISE project all the segments of the supply chain will coordinate and cooperate to
design and deliver the desired service within the given time at the recommended region.

Improved process integration

Agile supply chain will require higher level of integration between internal operational
processes, such as sales, forecasting, production planning, sourcing, and delivery. The logic
behind is straight forward. When sales operation sensed any change of market trends it will
trigger a chain reaction of responsive or corrective changes through many other operations in
the supply chain. How fast the supply chain can react to the market change is dependent on the
speed of changes in many other internal processes. Thus, it makes sense that the internal
processes must be integrated and perform as if they a one entity.

There are number of things that the supply chain managers can do to make difference. First,
forecast by market not by business units. The forecast generated by business units often show
huge variance and inconsistency. What an agile supply chain can do is to create a so-called
market lead team which will be responsible to all the forecasting required by the supply chain
and the business units wherein. Market team lead for Orgopest will forecast by the market
demand for training session for different agricultural issues I.e. It has been identified by team
lead that there is a high demand for training session on enhancing soil fertility and nutritional
content of vegetables by using biopesticides and reducing application of synthetic fertilizers.

Second, set out to create a capability of coordinating the three prime sectors source-make-
deliver. It is all too easy to assume the ERM system will look after everything. The matter of fact
is that they don’t. Team of orgopest will plan and design a training session depending upon
the audience and it is delivered as and when required.

Third, managers must link forecasting to improvement goals. This is so because the forecasting
is a process that can take the market sentiment and give indications as which directions the
market is moving to. Business improvement will only make sense when it responses to the
changing directions of the market.

Build a dynamic network

Looking at the agile supply chain’s architecture, managers need to clarify how the participating
members of the agile supply chains are best connected with each other. The supply chain
configuration can be divided broadly into two types of networks: stable network and dynamic
network. The stable network is a normal form of supply chain configuration where the suppliers
and buyers are formed in tiers along the supply chain. The suppliers’ involvement in the supply
chain is more or less fixed. The operational guidelines are formalised with the OEM. The
technical role and competence positioning in the supply chain is also predefined. The style of
operation of this type of network is mainly mechanical in nature that is displayed in its physical
functions.

However, the dynamic network is preferred by the agile supply chain and it has a set of very
different characterises. In the dynamic network, the ties between suppliers and buyers, and
amongst the suppliers themselves, are much looser than that of stable network. Short term
contract or virtual relations are more often the case. Some even strategically important
functions such as product design and marketing can be undertaken by independent
organisations at a short term basis.

Market forces rather than formalised structure are the means by which the parties are bonded
together. The network relies on more sophisticated information systems with high level of
information disclosure between the parties, whereby instant switch of connection can be easily
established if required by the sudden change of market. For those reasons, the dynamic
network is undoubtedly a more superior form of networking for agile operations.

Moving from the "integrated" to "dynamic" supply chain model enables companies to view
their supply chains as adaptable ecosystems of processes, people, capital assets, technology
and data. They strive for flexibility where it matters and focus their efforts on operational agility
that drives profits, and not just short-term efficiencies.

In unpredictable markets, dynamic supply chains can meet the specific needs of each customer
channel. For example: If a particular product is highly sensitive to media trends, a company
might establish highly adaptable manufacturing and distribution networks for the front end of
the product lifecycle and move more cost-effective methods toward the back end. Or if a
customer segment is particularly cost sensitive, the supply chain for that product must
ruthlessly drive out every last bit of waste or excess cost.
there are three initial steps that any company can take to jumpstart the process:

Think "portfolio of supply chains." A company should first define the supply chains within its
organization. This is done by aligning with overall business strategy, then segmenting supply
chains based on product, customer and geography. Each chain is then evaluated by functional
area to define which characteristics are considered unique and which are standard.

Define the dynamic operating model. There are four key capabilities within a dynamic supply
chain, which when executed simultaneously, form a model that enables the right level of
flexibility, adaptability and responsiveness.

Establish a value-sequenced transformational roadmap. Since every company seeks to manage

change without putting existing business at risk, sequencing is as important as timing. A strong
dynamic supply-chain roadmap is grouped into a series of capability releases that build upon
one another. This starts with foundational activities and early wins that generate quick cash
flow, as well as produce measurable operational and financial results at each step in the
journey. Proper sequencing allows for transformations to become self-funding.

By converting to a dynamic supply chain model, companies can create and sustain multiple
supply chains with a level of agility that allows them to respond to both opportunities and
threats. As a result, businesses that make this transition will be positioned to readily embrace
the unpredictable. Change is a blessing and curse at the same time. Orgopest should take
change, risk and threat as blessings and opportunities by creating a win win situation. Just
the way you make gig at fiver and give an option to your customer to ask you to make
changes in the product as many times a he/she wants, Orgopest will provide this opportunity
to the organizations to whom it will be providing agriculture-based consultancy.

Postponement Strategy
Ultimately, the validity of the agile model is to be tested, not by a formula, but by the
competition in the market place.

The market place to test agile supply chain is presumed to be volatile and fast changing in
nature. The top measure for the fitness of a supply chain is responsiveness. Typically high
responsiveness cannot be achieved for minimal cost.

Customers and suppliers have to make a choice. The trade-off can be tough at times. For any
agile supply chain there is always an incremental cost associated with servicing the changing
demand. For those genuinely need urgent service will pay a premium. If the customer’s demand
is not urgent, they perhaps can wait or chose alternative cheaper version which is often offered
by lean supply chains.

The unique value proposition of agile supply chains is that they can respond rapidly and with
high priority in unpredictable supply and demand conditions. To do this sometimes means
holding spare or redundant capacity to cope with the sudden surges in the pipeline. That is part
of the cost the agile supply chain has to pay. Zara has two very large distribution centres at La
Coruna and Zaragoza in Spain which sometimes may only be 50% utilised. This is not an
oversight on the capacity management, but a deliberated strategy. Zara management know the
cost of redundancy, but they also know the benefit and indeed the necessity of having transient
capacity available to support their rapid fire replenishment business model.

The levels of responsiveness a supply chain can deliver do make significant difference in terms
of winning the market share.

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which swept through the US state of
Louisiana in September 2005, one of the most affected companies was a major oil company,
which lost all of its computing equipment in its service centres.

The company contacted Hewlett Packard, its regular hardware supplier, with a priority request
to replace 1,000 specially configured PCs as quickly as possible. HP got back a few days later
with a commitment to deliver the replacements by Christmas. This was not the answer that the
company wanted to hear, so it called Dell which had not previously been a preferred supplier
and asked the same question. Back came the answer almost immediately: “Is Monday Okey?”
Dell got the business won a new major customer. It is quite telling that the supply chain that
can respond quickly wins.

How to create the structured supply chain responsiveness? The most commonly used strategy
is called postponement,or delayed configuration. Postponement is not just an operational trick,
it requires the supply chain to configure in a particular way which may or may not be so obvious
at the first sight. To illustrate the concept of postponement, we must first understand the
concept of ‘order decoupling point’ in supply chain. the order decoupling point determines how
far the customer orders will enter into the supply chain.

It is the point (marked by the inverted triangle in the figure) beyond which the customer
specific order is no longer visible to the supply chain. Different supply chains have different
design for where the order decoupling point sits. For a supply chain that is mainly ship-to-stock,
the decoupling point tends to be very much at the downstream end of the supply chain; while
for the supply chain that is mainly make-to-order, the decoupling point is usually at the
manufacturing stage in the middle part of supply chain. It is therefore clear that on the
downstream side of the decoupling point the supply chain operating model is customer ‘pull’ –
responding to demand changes. On the upstream side of the decoupling point the supply chain
is operating in a ‘push’ mode, where one the generic components are produced based on
amalgamated forecast and schedule.

The postponement strategy is aiming to achieve market responsiveness in terms of producing

the right variety and right product portfolio at the right quantity, but do it efficiently at a mass
production price. To achieve this, the order decoupling point is postponed to a later, or as later
as possible, stage close to product delivery. The resultant supply chain will have most part its
operation under scheduled generic components manufacturing, which is based on the
aggregated demand and in a volume production mode leading to low cost and high efficiency.
Reflecting what we have leant about the lean supply, understandably this part of supply chain
(before the decoupling point) is predominantly lean. Then at the end of this lean section, there
will be a stockpile of the inventory of those generic components called strategic inventory.

After the strategic inventory, the orders from customers are visible to the supply chain, and the
supply chain operation is focused on configuring (assembling to order) the products to satisfy
the demand. Because it is driven by the demand, this part of the supply chain is primarily agile.

The critical design point of postponement strategy is based on the understanding of the
market. When operated in an uncertain and volatile market environment the actual customer
demand on the variety of products is largely uncertain,unpredictable or volatile. The supply
chain could make all the possible variety of products in sufficient volume to stock in order to
satisfy the unknown demand, but the redundant products cost will be too high and supply chain
marketability would be too poor. Instead, the supply chain could reconfigure the material flows
and make a more predicable volume of generic components ready at the strategic inventory
point, but postpone the product configurations to the very last stage when the demand is a lot
clearer and the specific volumes of each variety become more predictable. In this way, not only
the specific customer demand can be fulfilled very quickly because all the generic components
are ready and only need to be assembled to the required configurations, also there will be no
redundant finished products because the volume is produced in such a short span before
delivery that it is matched to the exact demand.

Benefits:

1- Reduce Supply Risk

Supply risk is the probability of purchasing and supplies related accidents in the supply market.
Typical postponement strategy to reduce supply risk is purchasing postponement strategy. In
the case of purchasing postponement, the purchasing of raw materials is postponed until the
information on downstream demand becomes available. Purchasing postponement strategy is
preferred when the demand is highly uncertain, raw material has high obsolescence cost and is
of high value in terms of total product cost or ties up huge amount of working capital. Basic
demands can be produced in advance based on long-term forecasts while decisions on product
quantities for surge demands (with a higher level of uncertainty) have to be delayed until
further information on market demand is available.

2- Reduce Production Risk

Product Development Postponement

Product development postponement refers to all the activities of the value chain, including
product design activities, are delayed until receiving customer orders. Product development
postponement is considered extreme form of customization. Moreover in this case, the
customers are also involved during the design stage. In product development postponement,
information drives all the development process. This leads to a significant reduction in lead
times with fewer costly redesigns, especially those resulting from major changes later in the
development processes.

Production Postponement

Production risk refers to the risk occurring in the production process, such as machine failure,
product quality problems, the strike and so on. Production postponement means delay
production activities, and makes the inventory to maintain universal state, until the receipt of
customer orders. Production delays can be divided into manufacturing postponement,
assembling postponement, packaging postponement, labeling postponement etc. Production
postponement strategy works where there are multiple product derivatives. High product
variation makes it difficult to forecast and hold inventory at the finished stage. Production
postponement results in higher production costs because of the loss of scale economies. The
inventory costs on the other hand are reduced.

3- Reduce Demand Risk

Demand risk refers to the risk of uncertainty from the market trend and customer preference.
Typical strategies to decrease demand risk include logistics postponement and pricing
postponement.

Logistics Postponement

Logistics postponement refers to the postponement of the flow of final product. Logistics
postponement is like just-in-time delivery reducing obsolete inventories and improving
customer responsiveness by avoiding the wrong time and place utility of products. Instead of
placing the goods at the final point in the supply chain, they are kept at a central location, with
the aim of following the demand pattern for the final shipments.

Pricing Postponement

Pricing postponement refers to the postponement of the final price of the product. The final
price depends on the final customer need.

In the case of logistics postponement strategy, distribution costs are higher due to smaller
shipments and faster modes, inventory costs are reduced by holding inventories at a central
location while the production scale economies are preserved.

Getting It Right from Within.

To develop the agile capability for your supply chain, you must start from within. There number
of things the organisations in the supply chain need to get it right before they can become
competitive in the agility dominated operating environment.

This may include organisational structure change, process reengineering, cultivating

appropriate culture, developing KPI, and investing in IT system. The top level executives
commitment and direct involvement is the transformation is critical. It may also down to the
right style of leadership.

Structure Change

As mentioned earlier, agile supply chain differs from the lean one from its structure to say the
least. The structure change required for developing an agile supply chain applies to two
aspects. One is the supply chain architecture; another is the organisational internal structure. It
has to be said here that we assume business and supply chain strategies have been and will be
developed appropriately to support the structure decision making.

For the supply chain structure, it all about the organisations external connections and how the
whole supply chain is networked together. The first consideration is the extent of vertical
integration. For an agile supply chain, the broad guidance is to have small or narrow span of
vertical integration. This will give the supply chain a great deal of flexibility without feeling
bogged down by the fixed assets. The second aspect to consider might be the outsourcing
alternatives. To have a network of capable suppliers that can take outsourcing contracts from
you, will materially improve the agility of the supply chain. The other one to consider is the
location of the suppliers. Long distance and poor infrastructure will certain impede the supply
chain’s fast reaction and thus need to be pruned in the network.

From the organizational internal structure point of view, agile supply chain also demands some
structure changes. Some historically centralized operation may need to be decentralized to cut
the bureaucracy and respond to local conditions. Multi-divisional structure may be advisable to
concentrate on the product, service, and geographical area and allowing units to adapt to local
needs. Agile operations would also prefer more flat structures not tall hierarchies. High degree
of empowerment and less formal rules are also positive factors to the agile structure.

Process Change

In the agile supply chain, processes are still necessary, but they are fewer by definition. Any
process slows down the response time should be considered for reengineering. It is likely that
some process short-cuts are necessary for the agile operation and the level of operational risks
may rise. But the top priority is still the responsiveness, so long as the safety is not
compromised. Ways may be found to by-pass the regulations and opportunistic flair could play
a role in achieving unanticipated profit. However, this does not mean to create any expansive
purchasing or costly deliveries. Quite the contrary, the process that drive and support agile
supply chain are often the unique combinations of standard or modular process which is the
key to containing the cost while delivering the service to unexpected demand.

The postponement process discussed in the previous section is a widely applied process to
achieve higher agility. It is also important that the business processes are aligned through the
supply chain. Thus a coordinated process development for agile response is essential.

Key Performance Indicators

Agile supply chain will also need a set of its own unique key performance indicators (KPI). The
commonly used KPI in predominantly lean supply chain operating environment will not fit and
often misguide the management. On top of the most frequently used KPI for agile supply chains
are:

• Design to market time

• Customer satisfaction and delight

• Production throughput

• Delivery lead-time

• Product availability in the market

• Capacity synchronization and optimization

• Cost-to-serve

• Frequency of product up-grading

• Service innovation and flexibility

Fundamentally the KPI for agile supply chain is the market responsiveness in terms of speed
product range and service quality. But the detailed KPI for a specific organization, however,
must be aligned with its top level business strategies and related with the industry sector and
product categories.

IT Systems

Agile supply chains are best underpinned by an ERP system similar to those used in other supply
chain types. An array of additional applications designed to optimize the agile capabilities
including process alignment and joint forecasting and planning. Zara’s achievement of
remarkable responsiveness was due no small measure of its IT systems. The centralized design
teams for man’s ware, woman’s ware and children’s ware are hardwired with the retail stores
around the world. Using on-line market information the teams will be able to change or
creating new designs quickly ahead of the competition.

Anecdotally, if as few as three people have come to the store and asked something that Zara
don’t have. Zara’s design team will take it on and design it for them.

Nevertheless, investing in applications does not necessarily mean investing in large lump of
capital equipment. In fact, investing in hardware may even hinder the agility development.
Hardware is generally rigid and non-transferable between markets, once invested it will only
depreciate, and it depreciates much faster when new updated equipment are coming onto the
market. Renting or buying the service without taking the ownership of the hardware appears to
be a better choice for agile supply chains.

Zara Case and ERP

Zara is a global fashion retailer which sells its goods around the world. The retailer’s
international footprint proves that national borders are no hindrance to a shared fashion
culture.

Zara is well known for its up-to-the minute styles and products. The main key to their corporate
strategy is their SC strategy. While many retailers design and produce around 80% of their
season’s inventory, Zara keeps back 50% to be produced in the middle of the season. This way
they can react if, for example, the hot trend of the current season is skinny instead of boot-cut
jeans.

ERP System

Enterprise resource planning software is a software that is built toward the organization
belongings to different industrial sectors.

SAP ERP is a package, which is designed to support and integrate almost every functional area
of business processes like sales and distribution, finance, accounting, human resources,
manufacturing, production planning, procurement of goods and services, logistics and
warehouse management.

Oracle RDBMS is a database management system which is based on multi-model scheme. It is

produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation. Oracle RDBMS is commonly used for various
tasks like running online transaction, perform data warehousing.
ERP II is a solution that includes the traditional materials planning, distribution, and order-entry
functionality strengthened by capabilities like customer relationship management (CRM),
human resources management (HRM).

Such a system can quickly, accurately and consistently operate an entire organization. It
delivers information in an instant to the people who need it. It manages the access to that
information by establishing security roles and ratings that define which employees can use
certain pieces of information. It also addresses the issue of multiple office locations by making
the solution web-based, so employees can access the system no matter where they may be.

Advantages

There are many advantages of implementing an EPR system. A few of them are listed below:

1- A perfectly integrated system chaining all the functional areas together.

2- The capability to streamline different organizational processes and workflows.
3- The ability to effortlessly communicate information across various departments.
4- Improved efficiency, performance and productivity levels.
5- Enhanced tracking and forecasting.
6- Improved customer service and satisfaction.
7- Reduced inventory
8- Standardizes and speed up manufacturing.
Conclusion

CPEC and Food Security: Empirical Evidence From Pakistan Nida Baig (Corresponding
Author)

China has now become bigger country with great foreign direct investment in Pakistan in
different sectors like energy, agriculture, infrastructure, ports and telecommunication
(“China is Investing”, August 28, 2017). The development of CPEC makes Pakistan to be a
first economic hub among the South Asian countries (Nilofar et al., 2014). CPEC may be
considered as a “Game Changer” for Pakistan for its ultimate influence on the
development of most significant socio economic aspects like employme nt, and food
security etc. Growth in agricultural productivity plays a significant role to stimulate the
process of economic growth in most of the countries (Johnston and Mellor 1961; Timmer,
2005). In Pakistan, a griculture sector accounts for 19.53% of Pa kistan’s GDP (Pakistan
Economic Survey, 2016 17) which makes it highly dependent on agricultural production
while the agriculture sector is passing through structural transformation (Dawn, 2017)
that not only demands for the farms modernization but to deve lop investment strategies
with new approaches as well. Having undernourished infrastructure, most of food in
Pakistan is wasted during the supply chain

process. Hence, such problem could be resolved through the construction of a planned
infrastructure that may ease the communication/transportation from town/villages/cities
to marketplaces (Imran, 2017). Fortunately, CPEC could provide a better chance to boost
up the economic activities along with developing high standards of transport
infrastructure, and ag ricultural productivity by attributing significant growth to food
regions (Dobermann et al.,