Purpose: Flexibility is a fundamental performance objective for manufacturing operations, allowing them to respond to changing requirements in uncertain and competitive global markets. Additive manufacturing machines are often described as “flexible,” but there is no detailed understanding...

The paper explores the meaning of flexibility in the context of lean, agile and leagile supply networks and articulates a supply network flexibility framework. Two key ‘sources’ of flexibility are investigated: vendor flexibility and sourcing flexibility. The paper introduces an extension of...