1. Introduction
Supply chain management (SCM) helps firms in integrating their business by collaborating with other value chain partners to meet the unpredictable demand of the end user. An integrated supply chain or seamless supply engineered to cope with uncertainty can profitably satisfy customer demand, while non- integrated manufacturing processes, non-integrated distribution processes and poor relationships with suppliers and customers are the recipes of business failure for trading firms. In the era of time-based competition, supply chain must have ability to meet the demands of customers for ever-shorter delivery times and to synchronize supply during the peaks and troughs of the demand. To have this ability supply chain must be responsive to the needs of the market. Responsiveness requires speed and high level of maneuverability, which is also termed as agility.