Variety in Supply Networks: Definitions and influencing Parameters

Providing high variety in supply networks has become more and more important over the last decades, especially in high-end supply networks aspiring a high degree of differentiation. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to be the contribution to an overall model creation which aims to handle short-dated customer decisions and the related planning difficulties. On the basis of extensive literature review and content analysis, the most relevant definitions and influencing parameters in terms of variety were identified, classified and analyzed to gain a basic understanding for the solved and unsolved questions in the context of variety in supply network. In addition, the identified influencing parameters are described and finally visualized according to their position where they impact the supply network.