A Relative Comparison of Leading Supply Chain Management Software Packages

Supply Chain Management (SCM) has proven to be an effective tool that aids companies in the development of competitive advantages. SCM Systems are relied on to manage warehouses, transportation, trade logistics and various other issues concerning the coordinated movement of products and services from suppliers to customers. Although in today’s fast paced business environment, numerous supply chain solution tools are readily available to companies, choosing the right SCM software is not an easy task. The complexity of SCM systems creates a multifaceted issue when selecting the right software, particularly in light of the speed at which technology evolves. In this paper, we use the approach of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to determine which SCM software best meets the needs of a company. The AHP approach outlined in this paper can be easily transferred to the comparison of other SCM software packages

Evolution of a supply chain management game for the trading agent competition

TAC SCM is a supply chain management game for the Trading Agent Competition (TAC). The purpose of TAC is to spur high quality research into realistic trading agent problems. We discuss TAC and TAC SCM: game and competition design, scientific impact, and lessons learnt

Multiobjective optimization as a decision aid for managing build-to-order supply chains

This paper provides an overview of multiobjective optimization (MOO) as a decision aid in build-to-order supply chains (BTO-SC). The main features of BTO-SCs are discussed along with capabilities of MOO to enhance decision making at different points along the chain. Key decision points across a typical BTO-SC are identified and potential applications of MOO are discussed. A sample application is presented and future avenues for further research highlighted

U.S. Multinational Services Companies: Effects of Foreign Affiliate Activity on U.S. Employment

This working paper examines the effect that U.S. services firms’ establishment abroad has on domestic employment. Whereas many papers have explored the employment effects of foreign direct investment in manufacturing, few have explored the effects of services investment. We find that services multinationals’ activities abroad increase U.S. employment by promoting intrafirm exports from parent firms to their foreign affiliates. These exports support jobs at the parents’ headquarters and throughout their U.S. supply chains. Our findings are principally based on economic research and econometric analysis performed by Commission staff, services trade and investment data published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and employment data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the aggregate, we find that services activities abroad support nearly 700,000 U.S. jobs. Case studies of U.S. multinationals in the banking, computer, logistics, and retail industries provide the global dimensions of U.S. MNC operations and identify domestic employment effects associated with foreign affiliate activity in each industry

Analyzing the solutions of DEA through information visualization and data mining techniques: SmartDEA framework

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has proven to be a useful tool for assessing efficiency or productivity of organizations, which is of vital practical importance in managerial decision making. DEA provides a significant amount of information from which analysts and managers derive insights and guidelines to promote their existing performances. Regarding to this fact, effective and methodologic analysis and interpretation of DEA solutions are very critical. The main objective of this study is then to develop a general decision support system (DSS) framework to analyze the solutions of basic DEA models. The paper formally shows how the solutions of DEA models should be structured so that these solutions can be examined and interpreted by analysts through information visualization and data mining techniques effectively. An innovative and convenient DEA solver, SmartDEA, is designed and developed in accordance with the proposed analysis framework. The developed software provides a DEA solution which is consistent with the framework and is ready-to-analyze with data mining tools, through a table-based structure. The developed framework is tested and applied in a real world project for benchmarking the vendors of a leading Turkish automotive company. The results show the effectiveness and the efficacy of the proposed framework

Roadmap for Logistics Excellence: Need to Break the Unholy Equilibrium

This white paper attempts to provide a roadmap for India to move towards logistics excellence. Apart from raising issues that are currently relevant, it also draws from the issues that were raised in the previous three logistics summits and continue to be relevant today. As a departure from the earlier summits, it was felt that some of the issues could be presented even prior to the summit, to enable discussions and prioritization during the summit. The paper begins with an assessment of the overall performance of logistics in India, followed by a framework of an “unholy equilibrium” that seeks to explain where we are and why, and then provides actor wise action agenda as the roadmap towards logistics excellence.

Logistics outsourcing and 3PL selection: A Case study in an automotive supply chain

Outsourcing logistics functions to third-party logistics (3PL) providers has been a source of competitive advantage for most companies. Companies cite greater flexibility, operational efficiency, improved customer service levels, and a better focus on their core businesses as part of the advantages of engaging the services of 3PL providers. There are few complete and structured methodologies for selecting a 3PL provider. This paper discusses how one such methodology, namely the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), is used in an automotive supply chain for export parts to redesign the logistics operations and to select a global logistics service provider

Multi Agent Systems in Logistics: A Literature and State-of-the-art Review

Based on a literature survey, we aim to answer our main question: “How should we plan and execute logistics in supply chains that aim to meet today’s requirements, and how can we support such planning and execution using IT?†Today’s requirements in supply chains include inter-organizational collaboration and more responsive and tailored supply to meet specific demand. Enterprise systems fall short in meeting these requirements The focus of planning and execution systems should move towards an inter-enterprise and event-driven mode. Inter-organizational systems may support planning going from supporting information exchange and henceforth enable synchronized planning within the organizations towards the capability to do network planning based on available information throughout the network. We provide a framework for planning systems, constituting a rich landscape of possible configurations, where the centralized and fully decentralized approaches are two extremes. We define and discuss agent based systems and in particular multi agent systems (MAS). We emphasize the issue of the role of MAS coordination architectures, and then explain that transportation is, next to production, an important domain in which MAS can and actually are applied. However, implementation is not widespread and some implementation issues are explored. In this manner, we conclude that planning problems in transportation have characteristics that comply with the specific capabilities of agent systems. In particular, these systems are capable to deal with inter-organizational and event-driven planning settings, hence meeting today’s requirements in supply chain planning and execution.supply chain;MAS;multi agent systems