Purchasing must actively deal with the fact that markets are constantly changing and the effects of this regularly place new demands on the supply chain.
The desired flexibility in the company to manage volatility requires agility in the supply chain, which may also entail the need for organizational adjustments.
The constant willingness and ability of companies to change and adapt value chains if necessary due to economic or political conditions is referred to as supply chain agility (SCA).
Agility relates to both the internal and external parts of the value chain, i.e. including relationships with suppliers and customers.
Ensuring agility includes activities for short-term, operational requirements, such as those that arise in ordering, checking delivery quality and managing suppliers, as well as strategic activities that only have an impact in the medium and long term, such as the development of alternative suppliers or the implementation of conceptual changes as part of new logistics, assembly or sales processes.
Supply chain agility has been identified as a particularly important topic for large companies.
However, due to increasing market dynamics and growing uncertainties, it is also essential for small to medium-sized companies to address and prepare themselves in order to avoid the occurrence of supply chain-related risks.
Customers must always be served in such a way that the desired products can be made available in the right places at the right times, regardless of whether product life cycles change or other environmental influences take effect.
It should also be noted that activities to improve SCA do not introduce any additional complexity into the company.
It therefore makes sense to link the two elements of uncertainty and agility and counteract the increase in complexity.
The agility factors are summarized according to the following Figure 1, which are also set in relation to each other.
Figure 1: Agility factors (Source: BME & BVL) The ability to gain knowledge and flexibility are a fundamental prerequisite for supply chain agility, but competitive differentiation is essentially possible through the rapid implementation of adjustments.
The optimal combination of factors ultimately leads to an increase in value contributions (Figure 2), which result from the reduction of costs on the one hand and the improvement of performance and services on the other. 
Figure 2: Value contributions of the agility factors (Source: BME & BVL) Supply chain agility builds on supply chain management and in some cases supplements content that has already been started in supply chain management.
Above all, this includes the development of the supplier structure and logistics processes including holistic management, the standardization of procedures in procurement and ensuring delivery performance. The expansion includes risk assessments for suppliers and countries, including long-term sourcing plans, the development of new partners and cost reduction initiatives together with suppliers.
The consequences of the evolution from supply chain management to supply chain agility lead to new strategic directions and responsibilities, enabling the organization to make fundamentally faster decisions.
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