Optimising Supply Chain Performance via Information Sharing and Coordinated Management

Supply chain management has attracted much attention in the last decade. There has been a noticeable shift from a traditional individual organisation-based management to an integrated management across the supply chain network since the end of the last century. The shift contributes to better decision making in the supply chain context, as it is necessary for a company to cooperate with other supply chain members by utilising relevant information such as inventory, demand and resource capacity. In other words, information sharing and coordinated management are essential mechanisms to improve supply chain performance. Supply chains may differ significantly in terms of industry sectors, geographic locations, and firm sizes. This study was based on case studies from small and medium sized manufacturing supply chains in People Republic of China. The study was motivated by the following facts. Firstly, small and medium enterprises have made a big contribution to China’s economic growth. Several studies revealed that most of the Chinese manufacturing enterprises became aware of the importance of supply chain management, but compared to western firms, the supply chain management level of Chinese firms had been lagging behind. Research on supply chain management and performance optimisation in Chinese small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) was very scarce. Secondly, there had been plenty of studies in the literature that focused on two or three level supply chains whilst considering a number of uncertain factors (e.g. customer demand) or a single supply chain performance indicator (e.g. cost). However, the research on multiple stage supply chain systems with multiple uncertainties and multiple objectives based on real industrial cases had been spared and deserved more attention. One reason was due to the lack of reliable industrial data that required an enormous effort to collect the primary data and there was a serious concern about data confidentiality from the industry aspect. This study employed two SME manufacturing companies as case studies. The first one was in the Aluminium industry and another was in the Chemical industry. The aim was to better understand the characteristics of the supply chains in Chinese SMEs through performing in-depth case studies, and built models and tools to evaluate different strategies for improving their supply chain performance. The main contributions of this study included the following aspects. Firstly, this study generalised a supply chain model including a domestic supply chain part and an international supply chain part based on deep case studies with the emphasis on identifying key characteristics in the case supply chains, such as uncertainties, constraints and cost elements in association with flows and activities in the domestic supply chain and the international supply chain. Secondly, two important SCM issues, i.e. the integrated raw material procurement and finished goods production planning, and the international sales planning, were identified. Thirdly, mathematical models were formulated to represent the supply chain model taking into account multiple uncertainties. Fourthly, several operational strategies utilising the concepts of just-in-time, safety-stock/capacity, Kanban, and vendor managed inventory, were evaluated and compared with the case company's original strategy in various scenarios through simulation methods, which enabled quantification of the impact of information sharing on supply chain performance. Fifthly, a single objective genetic algorithm was developed to optimise the integrated raw material ordering and finished goods production decisions under (s, S) policy (a dynamic inventory control policy), which enabled the impact of coordinated management on supply chain performance to be quantified. Finally, a multiple objectives genetic algorithm considering both total supply chain cost and customer service level was developed to optimise the integrated raw material ordering and finished goods production with the international sales plan decisions under (s, S) policy in various scenarios. This also enabled the quantification of the impact of coordinated management on supply chain performances

Assessment of joint inventory replenishment: a cooperative games approach

This research deals with the design of a logistics strategy with a collaborative approach between non-competing companies, who through joint coordination of the replenishment of their inventories reduce their costs thanks to the exploitation of economies of scale. The collaboration scope includes sharing logistic resources with limited capacities; transport units, warehouses, and management processes. These elements conform a novel extension of the Joint Replenishment Problem (JRP) named the Schochastic Collaborative Joint replenishment Problem (S-CJRP). The introduction of this model helps to increase practical elements into the inventory replenishment problem and to assess to what extent collaboration in inventory replenishment and logistics resources sharing might reduce the inventory costs. Overall, results showed that the proposed model could be a viable alternative to reduce logistics costs and demonstrated how the model can be a financially preferred alternative than individual investments to leverage resources capacity expansions. Furthermore, for a practical instance, the work shows the potential of JRP models to help decision-makers to better understand the impacts of fleet renewal and inventory replenishment decisions over the cost and CO2 emissions.DoctoradoDoctor en Ingeniería Industria

Applications of Contemporary Management Approaches in Supply Chains

In today's rapidly changing business environment, strong influence of globalization and information technologies drives practitioners and researchers of modern supply chain management, who are interested in applying different contemporary management paradigms and approaches, to supply chain process. This book intends to provide a guide to researchers, graduate students and practitioners by incorporating every aspect of management paradigms into overall supply chain functions such as procurement, warehousing, manufacturing, transportation and disposal. More specifically, this book aims to present recent approaches and ideas including experiences and applications in the field of supply chains, which may give a reference point and useful information for new research and to those allied, affiliated with and peripheral to the field of supply chains and its management

Co-ordination and Lock-in: Competition with Switching Costs and Network Effects

Switching costs and network effects bind customers to vendors if products are incompatible, locking customers or even markets in to early choices. Lock-in hinders customers from changing suppliers in response to (predictable or unpredictable) changes in effciency, and gives vendors lucrative ex post market power-over the same buyer in the case of switching costs (or brand loyalty), or over others with network effects. Firms compete ex ante for this ex post power, using penetration pricing, introductory offers, and price wars. Such "competition for the market" or "life-cycle competition" can adequately replace ordinary compatible competition, and can even be fiercer than compatible competition by weakening differentiation. More often, however, incompatible competition not only involves direct effciency losses but also softens competition and magnifies incumbency advantages. With network effects, established firms have little incentive to offer better deals when buyers’ and complementors’ expectations hinge on non-effciency factors (especially history such as past market shares), and although competition between incompatible networks is initially unstable and sensitive to competitive offers and random events, it later "tips" to monopoly, after which entry is hard, often even too hard given incompatibility. And while switching costs can encourage small-scale entry, they discourage sellers from raiding one another’s existing customers, and s also discourage more aggressive entry. Because of these competitive effects, even ineffcient incompatible competition is often more profitable than compatible competition, especially for dominant rms with installed-base or expectational advantages. Thus firms probably seek incompatibility too often. We therefore favor thoughtfully pro-compatibility public policy.

INCOTERMS and the legal regime of loading and unloading particular study of traffic in the Black Sea

The scope of this thesis is to searching the potential ofthe maritime traffic in the Black Sea, the good application of the INCOTERMS in this region and the opportunities of maritime transport with the others seas. The research project conducted in this thesis uses qualitative methods: interviews with people that working in the maritime transport in the Black Sea that were made through e-mail to get a practical view on the topic, statistics and studies makes by me in the practice. The results indicate that there are no outstanding obstacles for the development of the commercial maritime traffic in the Black Sea and that the maritime companies of the world are very interested to start a large process to export and import in this region, ofcourse applying correct the INCOTERMS. Also, we analyze in this study the im portance of the Bosporus Strait that connecting the Black Sea with the Mediterrean Sea and offers big opportunities to the global maritime transport. The studies in this field of maritime traffic conducted us to find out what are the standards in the maritime trade in the Black Sea but also in comparison with the Mediterrean Sea, Baltic Sea and Caspian Sea. The Black Sea basin presents various challenges and offers numerous opportunities. Ps a result, its development requires special consideration by policy makers. The central question of this paper is given the difference in legal and political systems in the presence, more geo strategically considerations, building on the commercial development from existing business practices. Mercantile custom plays an important role in international commercial law, whether that is as a source of or merelyas an element of the new law merchant. Trade usages and practices tend to be linked to a specific location, trade or port in which they are used. Es pecially in the context of trade term s, differences in interpretation detract from their harmonization function. The latest edition of the ICC INCOTERMS was carried out in 2010 when the INCOTERMS. Two major innovations are the num ber of rules and their classification. Under previous INCOTERM revis ions, term s were grouped in order of increasing responsibilityon the seller, now were classified according to the mode of trans port. There are 11 rules instead of13.INCOTERMS 2010 includes two new rules, Delivered atTerminal (DAT) and Delivered at Place (DAP), and eliminates the Delivered at Frontier (DAF), Delivered Ex-Ship (DES), Delivered Ex-Quay (DEQ) and Delivered Duty Unpaid (DDU) designations. DAT replaces the current DEQ, while DAP replaces DAF, DES and DDU. The option of applying one or another INCOTERM of the delivery conditions or practices known worldwide should consider a number of criteria, such as the following: the ratio of currency and foreign currency contract for payment of transportation, insurance and other charges related to delivery; market situation and the charges of air and land transport, participation in international conventions on transport, which involves preferential rates oftransport, customs outlets in markets or supplies. In the case of a saturated market, where there is a strong competition, the exporter can earn a segment of this market, providing certain favorable conditions to the importer within the meaning of risk and minimal costs that the latter must bear. Delivery condition is one of the essential terms are agreed between international contract partners, thereby regulating the transfer actually goods and the seller to the buyer risks, including legal consequences and general economic. Since the implementation ofthe each entry in the various delivery methods, costs, which can't be neglected, their enrollment contract specifications require is especially importantto establish who and what pays any omission of this view mayor cancel benefits buying or selling expected at closing. We hope that this thesis may be able to help the future importers and exporters in the global maritime traffic

Application of Optimization in Production, Logistics, Inventory, Supply Chain Management and Block Chain

The evolution of industrial development since the 18th century is now experiencing the fourth industrial revolution. The effect of the development has propagated into almost every sector of the industry. From inventory to the circular economy, the effectiveness of technology has been fruitful for industry. The recent trends in research, with new ideas and methodologies, are included in this book. Several new ideas and business strategies are developed in the area of the supply chain management, logistics, optimization, and forecasting for the improvement of the economy of the society and the environment. The proposed technologies and ideas are either novel or help modify several other new ideas. Different real life problems with different dimensions are discussed in the book so that readers may connect with the recent issues in society and industry. The collection of the articles provides a glimpse into the new research trends in technology, business, and the environment

A contribution to supply chain design under uncertainty

Dans le contexte actuel des chaînes logistiques, des processus d'affaires complexes et des partenaires étendus, plusieurs facteurs peuvent augmenter les chances de perturbations dans les chaînes logistiques, telles que les pertes de clients en raison de l'intensification de la concurrence, la pénurie de l'offre en raison de l'incertitude des approvisionnements, la gestion d'un grand nombre de partenaires, les défaillances et les pannes imprévisibles, etc. Prévoir et répondre aux changements qui touchent les chaînes logistiques exigent parfois de composer avec des incertitudes et des informations incomplètes. Chaque entité de la chaîne doit être choisie de façon efficace afin de réduire autant que possible les facteurs de perturbations. Configurer des chaînes logistiques efficientes peut garantir la continuité des activités de la chaîne en dépit de la présence d'événements perturbateurs. L'objectif principal de cette thèse est la conception de chaînes logistiques qui résistent aux perturbations par le biais de modèles de sélection d'acteurs fiables. Les modèles proposés permettent de réduire la vulnérabilité aux perturbations qui peuvent aV, oir un impact sur la continuité des opérations des entités de la chaîne, soient les fournisseurs, les sites de production et les sites de distribution. Le manuscrit de cette thèse s'articule autour de trois principaux chapitres: 1 - Construction d'un modèle multi-objectifs de sélection d'acteurs fiables pour la conception de chaînes logistiques en mesure de résister aux perturbations. 2 - Examen des différents concepts et des types de risques liés aux chaînes logistiques ainsi qu'une présentation d'une approche pour quantifier le risque. 3 - Développement d'un modèle d'optimisation de la fiabilité afin de réduire la vulnérabilité aux perturbations des chaînes logistiques sous l'incertitude de la sollicitation et de l'offre

Risk Management for the Future

A large part of academic literature, business literature as well as practices in real life are resting on the assumption that uncertainty and risk does not exist. We all know that this is not true, yet, a whole variety of methods, tools and practices are not attuned to the fact that the future is uncertain and that risks are all around us. However, despite risk management entering the agenda some decades ago, it has introduced risks on its own as illustrated by the financial crisis. Here is a book that goes beyond risk management as it is today and tries to discuss what needs to be improved further. The book also offers some cases

Fuzzy EOQ Model with Trapezoidal and Triangular Functions Using Partial Backorder

EOQ fuzzy model is EOQ model that can estimate the cost from existing information. Using trapezoid fuzzy functions can estimate the costs of existing and trapezoid membership functions has some points that have a value of membership . TR ̃C value results of trapezoid fuzzy will be higher than usual TRC value results of EOQ model . This paper aims to determine the optimal amount of inventory in the company, namely optimal Q and optimal V, using the model of partial backorder will be known optimal Q and V for the optimal number of units each time a message . EOQ model effect on inventory very closely by using EOQ fuzzy model with triangular and trapezoid membership functions with partial backorder. Optimal Q and optimal V values for the optimal fuzzy models will have an increase due to the use of trapezoid and triangular membership functions that have a different value depending on the requirements of each membership function value. Therefore, by using a fuzzy model can solve the company's problems in estimating the costs for the next term