Operational responsiveness is a quality of a business process or supporting IT solution, which indicates its ability to respond to changing conditions and customer interactions as they occur.
Improving operational responsiveness requires significant changes in either the elements linked together in a functional system, the linkages between subsystems, or both.
Operational responsiveness has been used in a military context to describe both the ability of a military unit or operation to respond quickly and effectively to changes in the local situation as they occur, and the ability for the central leadership to quickly provide information, resources, or new capabilities to the field, typically in response to expressed needs of local commanders.
[2][3] The key concepts of operational responsiveness have emerged as critical to supply chain management as the practice has evolved.
The other aspects of operational responsiveness are apparent in the strategic and tactical activities as well, where longer-term plans are adjusted according to an evaluation of current and anticipated changes in the overall business environment.