Rapid response logistics: Strategies, models, and technologies for effective supply chain management

Greater internet penetration and ecommerce has led to demand for personalized product development and faster fulfilment. This has increased global competition wherein the manufacturer and retailers not only have to deal with an unprecedented number and variety of products but also makes forecasting and scheduling difficult. To address these problems, rapid response logistics has become a necessity. The current study discusses the role of such rapid response systems and various implementation strategies in both the demand and supply side of supply chains that can be the solutions to the dynamic business environment. It discusses the information sharing technologies based on different level of sophistication which are used by the different echeloned supply chains. The paper reviews the important literature in these aspects and brings forth the challenges of the rapid response systems and the new directions of research which needs to be undertaken to gauge the real potential of rapid response systems.