Designing supply chains: Towards theory development

This paper describes a typology for designing supply chains that work in harmony to design, produce, and deliver products with different characteristics and customer expectations. This research discusses supply chain types that are necessary for success across three types of products: standard, innovative, and hybrid. It develops a framework for categorizing the supply chain types according to product characteristics and stage of the product life cycle. The key success factor for a product change as the product moves through its life cycle, and this may require different supply chain characteristics and capabilities. The paper blends literature and theory development with cases study research to create the typology and develop a set of research questions for further investigation.     

Benefits of using hybrid business models within a supply chain

Today's competition between supply chains (SC) requires optimized strategies in order to satisfy customers’ demands. The business models used by the SC members play a big role in this delivery of value to the customer. From here the notion that a mismatch between the intended market and the business model used to address it translates into a poor SC performance. As real-life business environments have become really complex, SC members have been forced to use hybrid business models (that is, the integration of features of two different business models). A review of the literature in the area of supply chain management shows that past research have not paid much attention to this issue. The objective of this paper is to quantitatively evaluate the influence these hybrid business models have on the SC performance. For this purpose, a system dynamics (SD) simulation model is developed and tested under different operational conditions, so conclusions can be derived regarding the benefits of the use of hybrid business models.     

Dynamic supply chain modeling using a new fuzzy hybrid negotiation mechanism

The key part of dynamic supply chain management is negotiating with suppliers and with buyers. Coordination is essential for successful supply chain management. In order to model coordination among suppliers and buyers in a dynamic supply chain, this paper takes a step further and proposes a new fuzzy- logic-based hybrid negotiation mechanism. In most real-world negotiation situations, agents have a common interest to cooperate, but have conflicting interests over exactly how to cooperate. These situations involve restrictions and preferences that may be vaguely and partly defined. Therefore, this study takes the advantage of fuzzy logic and develops a hybrid negotiation-based mechanism, that combines both cooperative and competitive negotiations. Achieving effective coordination in a multi-agent system is non-trivial as no agent possesses the global view of the problem space. Moreover, the different strategies adopted by agents may produce conflicts. While agents coordinate with each other in the operations, they will negotiate about their strategies to reduce conflicts. The proposed fuzzy hybrid negotiation mechanism allows negotiation agents more flexibility and robustness in an automated negotiation system. The proposed mechanism not only helps sellers and buyers to explore various new choices and opportunities that the e-markets offer but also allows them to identify and analyze their resource constraints in a given schedule, and helps them to explore and exploit many alternatives for a better solution. The efficacy of the proposed approach is demonstrated through an illustrative example.     

Production planning of a hybrid manufacturing-remanufacturing system under uncertainty within a closed-loop supply chain

This paper deals with the production planning and control of a single product involving combined manufacturing and remanufacturing operations within a closed-loop reverse logistics network with machines subject to random failures and repairs. While consumers traditionally dispose of products at the end of their life cycle, recovery of the used products may be economically more attractive than disposal, while remanufacturing of the products also pursues sustainable development goals. Three types of inventories are involved in this network. The manufactured and remanufactured items are stored in the first and second inventories. The returned products are collected in the third inventory and then remanufactured or disposed of. The objective of this research is to propose a manufacturing/remanufacturing policy that would minimize the sum of the holding and backlog costs for manufacturing and remanufacturing products. The decision variables are the production rates of the manufacturing and the remanufacturing machines. The optimality conditions are developed using the optimal control theory based on stochastic dynamic programming. A computational algorithm, based on numerical methods, is used for solving the optimal control problem. Finally, a numerical example and a sensitivity analysis are presented to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed approach. The structure of the optimal control policy is discussed depending on the value of costs and parameters and extensions to more complex reverse logistics networks are discussed.     

建筑供应链利益分配模型探讨

针对EPC交钥匙工程,详细分析了shapley值法分配供应链利益的不足,综合考虑了诸多影响因素,提出了一个新的基于shapley值法的EPC工程建筑供应链合作企业的利益分配修正模型,使建筑供应链的利益分配更加合理。     

Production planning: An improved hybrid approach

This paper proposes an extended linear programming model for the hybrid approach proposed by Byrne and Bakir (International Journal of Production Economics 59 (1999) 305) and Kim and Kim (International Journal of Production Economics 73 (2001) 165). In this new model the workload of jobs is sub-divided to introduce the unit load concept of JIT. While an optimum plan is sought, due to this unit load concept, the model takes account of the requirement of small lot sizes which is one factor of the JIT approach. The effective loading ratio (ratio of the output quantity to the input quantity) is modified by omitting the slack time for each job. This helps to ensure that correct quantity of product is produced in each period, thus minimising any excess inventory or backlogging. Omission of slack time will also improve equipment utilisation and throughput. A flexible capacity constraint is also introduced which takes into account the availability of resources based on their previous histories.The incorporation of the unit load concept and modification of resource requirements and constraints in the proposed LP formulation are expected to help to improve the planning model by reducing the level of WIP and total flow time.     

Development of a process mining system for supporting knowledge discovery in a supply chain network

In today's competitive environment, business organizations are forced to maintain their competitive advantage by their ability to cut costs, increase revenue and uncover hidden issues. In order to enhance the visibility and transparency of value added information in a supply chain network, a process mining system is proposed for discovering a set of fuzzy association rules based on the daily captured logistics operation data, within the network. The proposed methodology provides all levels of employees with the ability to enhance their knowledge and understanding of the current business environment. Once interesting association rules have been extracted, organizations can identify the root-causes of quality problems in a supply chain and improve performance by fine-tuning the configuration of process parameters in specified processes. The application of the proposed methodology in a case company has also been studied. The prototype system has been developed and evaluated after performing a spatial analysis. The results obtained indicate that the system is capable of extracting high-quality and actionable information in the case company.     

A tabu search heuristic for redesigning a multi-echelon supply chain network over a planning horizon

This paper addresses the problem of redesigning a supply chain network with multiple echelons and commodities. The problem belongs to a comprehensive class of network redesign problems previously introduced in the literature. Redesign decisions comprise the relocation of existing facilities to new sites under an available budget over a finite time horizon, the supply of commodities by upstream facilities, the inventory levels at storage facilities, and the flow of commodities through the network. The problem is modeled as a large-scale mixed-integer linear program. Feasible solutions are obtained by using a tabu search procedure that explores the space of the facility location variables. The latter prescribe the time periods in which changes in the network configuration occur. They are triggered by the setup of new facilities, which operate with capacity transferred from the existing facilities, and by closing the latter upon their entire relocation. As the problem is highly constrained, infeasible solutions with excess budget are allowed during the course of the search process. However, such solutions are penalized for their infeasibility. Computational experiments on realistically sized randomly generated instances indicate that this strategic oscillation scheme used in conjunction with tabu search performs very well.     

Integrating the supply chain: industrial relations implications in US grocery distribution

Recent technological innovations have emphasised increasing integration between enterprises across the supply chain. This article reviews these developments within US grocery distribution and highlights the potential for supply chain integration to increase union bargaining power, as well as employer strategies aimed at reducing the threat of industrial vulnerability resulting from cross-enterprise interdependence.     

An activities-based approach to network management: An explorative study

Over the last few decades, the industrial marketing literature and the business network literature have promoted a holistic approach to marketing and provided a framework for understanding interorganizational networks. However, our understanding of how interorganizational networks govern themselves when developing innovations is still limited. Most network management literature does not focus on the activities employed by network actors and/or does not recognize that there may be different modes of network management. This study explores how, why and in which combination network management activities are employed in a network and in doing so proposes a new conceptualization of network management. Using primary and secondary data pertaining to eleven innovation projects, this study reveals how network management consists of combinations of (rather than individual) management activities undertaken to manage a network. This study identifies three distinct modes of network management: basically coordinated, control-oriented and reward-oriented. Moreover, this study proposes that network actors try to match the management mode to their prevailing mental model as well as the type of network (e.g. in terms of project innovativeness).     

Evaluation of robustness of supply chain information-sharing strategies using a hybrid Taguchi and multiple criteria decision-making method

The advances in information technology have prompted the development of many supply chain information-sharing strategies, including electronic point of sales (EPOS), vendor-managed inventory (VMI), e-shopping, emergency transshipments, and so on. However, variations in the business environment can produce uncertainty and increase decision-making complexity for enterprises selecting from various supply chain information-sharing strategies. An effective and efficient supply chain strategy should be capable of reducing costs and raising customer-service levels, and should be capable of enhancing the robustness of the supply chain. In this study, the robustness of different supply chain strategies under various uncertain environments is studied using the simulated beer game. Techniques included Taguchi methodology and multiple criteria decision-making methods (MCDMs), including simple multiple attribute rating technology (SMART), technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), and grey relational analysis (GRA). The signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio for each criterion is calculated to indicate the robustness of performance. This S/N ratio is used to determine an overall evaluation among various supply chain information-sharing strategies. The simulation results show that e-shopping has the most robust performance in uncertain environments.     

Stochastic perspective of industrial distribution network processes

This article investigates contemporary distribution processes in the industrial market. The main trend in distribution during the recent decades manifests itself in a growing number of network-type distribution chains. Based on the evolutionary trends in distribution research, we came up with the idea to investigate distribution networks processes using mathematical tools of probability theory. We consider a distribution network in a stochastic way, where a focal agent optimizes the distribution chain at each decision-making node by switching between possible partners. This allows us to apply time-homogeneous Markov chains theory to explore the partner selection process. We present an approach that allows for the estimating of implicit non-price variables of partner choice in a supply chain. The approach is based on the research context of the transitional Russian economy.     

Ordering and pricing policies in a manufacturing and distribution supply chain for fashion products

In the paper, we develop a model of manufacturing and distribution supply chains that are operating to meet price-sensitive random demand for products with short life cycles such as fashion products. Two specific scenarios are considered. The manufacturer-controlled scenario is one where the distributor shares price-sensitive random demand with the manufacturer, and the manufacturer controls the supply chain stocking decisions and bears the risk of overstocking costs. The distributor-controlled scenario works in the opposite direction. Prevailing wisdom suggests that the manufacturer should control supply chain decisions (e.g., via vendor-managed inventory). Our results indicate that such an arrangement is against the interest of a distributor selling short life-cycle products. Furthermore, we find that the total supply chain profit is generally higher when the distributor controls the supply chain stocking decisions and bears the risk of overstocking costs.     

An evolving science-society contract in India: The search for legitimacy in anticipatory risk governance

This article analyzes evolving institutions and practices of anticipatory risk governance in India, through the lens of two recent and highly controversial developments in governing genetically modified crops in Indian agriculture. These developments include, first, conflicts over approving (or not) the very first genetically modified food crop in India and a related experiment in participatory decision-making; and second, proposals to revamp the existing biosafety regulatory system (with its checks and balances across diverse sources of authority) with one that elevates scientists and scientific expertise to the pinnacle of decision-making power. The article analyzes the distinct means by which legitimacy is sought to be conferred upon the means and ends of anticipatory risk governance, as reflected in these two examples. I contrast claims to legitimacy deriving from innovative experiments in participatory democracy with legitimacy claims based upon “objective” science, showing that despite acknowledged need for the former, the latter is still being prioritized. The article concludes by identifying the contours of an evolving science-society contract in India, as revealed by these cases.     

Exploring the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities for social innovation in a humanitarian aid supply network setting

This paper explores the microfoundations of the dynamics capabilities (DCs) needed for social innovation in a humanitarian aid context. We aim to reveal how humanitarian aid supply networks should develop DCs to achieve social innovation by meeting societal needs in highly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environments. We conducted a qualitative content analysis on the activities of Logistics Cluster (LC), which is an organization that coordinates and guides local and international organizations to support worldwide humanitarian aid interventions. We primarily examined the LC's lessons-learned reports, supported by semi-structured interviews with the managers of LC and its supply network members. The findings revealed that: (i) early anticipation of needs in disaster-affected areas and lessons-learned exercises are the microfoundations of sensing capabilities; (ii) building capacity, supply network service provision, collaboration with logistics service providers, local partner engagement, building trust, and reconciliation are the microfoundations of seizing capabilities; and (iii) coordination and adaptability are the microfoundations of reconfiguring capabilities in the humanitarian aid context. Additionally, we identified relevant microprocesses for this context, which are preparing, engaging, strengthening, streamlining, and responding. Based on these findings, we propose a framework for social innovation in highly dynamic settings.     

Reliability evaluation and adjustment of supply chain network design with demand fluctuations

This study focuses on supply chain network design problems by considering economies of scale and demand fluctuations. A reliability evaluation method is developed to evaluate the performance of plants under demand fluctuations. In addition, two mathematical programming models are developed to determine the optimal adjustment decisions regarding production reallocation among plants under different fluctuating demands. The judgments to adjust or to do-nothing are investigated by comparing the results if the adjustment is made or not made. Results show that making adjustments benefits the manufacturers by reducing total production cost and avoiding revenue loss, which outweighs the extra costs, especially for high value-added products. Results also suggest that the manufacturer should ignore a short period abnormal state, since the benefits to respond to it might not compensate the high allocation costs. The results of this study provide a reference for the manufacturer in their decision making process of network planning with demand fluctuations, when they have to cope with benefits and costs during abnormal states.