Strategic Redesign of U.S. Supply Chain Networks for Operational Agility and Competitive Advantage

This research focuses on Strategic Redesign of U.S. Supply Chain Networks to Operational Agility and Competitive Advantage due to global crisis, technological shocks as well as changes in the marketplace. The traditional cost-optimized supply chain has been discovered to be ineffective in the current volatile environment, and as such, it requires strategic design to be agile and resilient. The study attempts to combine the evidence of qualitative literature and case analyses to examine the contribution of strategic redesign in operational agility and competitive advantage based on risk mitigation and digital-physical integration, structural reconfiguration, and development of dynamic capability. It was a systematic qualitative literature review and was backed by two case studies. Associated with such improvements was a 35 percent reduction in lead times and improved resilience owing to the digital twin integration, predictive analytics, and regionalization of the successful redesign that Cisco undertook. In contrast, the redesigned 787 by Boeing experienced capability deficiencies of its suppliers, an inability to coordinate, and cost overruns of more than 12 billion dollars, negating the agile prospects of its outsourcing practices. The leadership commitment, technological maturity, and dynamic capability are needed in making the redesign a success, whereas the high cost of investment and organizational inertia are the problems of the redesign. The proactive requirement of strategic redesign is to holistically combine business reconfiguration of structure, digital conversion, and collaborative supplier networks to create nimble, robust supply networks that push competitive advantage through the wilds of the global economy.