What is the difference between agility and resilience in supply chains?

• A. Agility is the ability to recover quickly from disruptions; resilience is speed to respond.
• B. Agility is speed and flexibility to respond to changing demand; resilience is the ability to recover quickly from disruptions.
• C. They are identical.
• D. Agility means higher inventory than resilience.

Answer: (B)

In supply chains, agility is about speed and flexibility to respond to changing demand and conditions. It means rapidly adjusting sourcing, production, and distribution as market signals shift, so you can meet new requirements with minimal delay. Resilience, by contrast, is the ability to absorb disruptions and recover quickly to normal operations, preserving continuity even when shocks occur. It involves safeguards like backup suppliers, redundancy, and contingency plans to bounce back after a disruption.

This combination—fast, flexible response to changing demand versus quick recovery after a disruption—is why the statement that agility equals speed and flexibility to respond to changing demand while resilience equals the ability to recover quickly from disruptions best captures the difference. The other options mix up the definitions or suggest they’re identical or tied to inventory levels, which isn’t the core distinction.