A decision support system for the collaborative selection of strategies in enterprise networks

Collaborative networks (CN) consist of autonomous and heterogeneous partners, and each defines its own objectives and formulates its own strategies, which are selected and activated to achieve these objectives. The heterogeneity that characterises network partners could lead to contradictions appearing among the strategies formulated in each CN enterprise. Consequently, the strategies formulated in one enterprise could negatively influence the achievement of the objectives defined in other enterprises of the same network. These contradictions lead to strategies misalignments, which worsens the network performance. In order to deal with these misalignments, a DSS is proposed to support the process of selecting the strategies among all those formulated, with the aim of achieving higher alignment levels. The proposed DSS considers the impacts that each strategy formulated in each enterprise has on the performance of the objectives defined by each network partner. This allows enterprises to select a set of aligned strategies. The selection of proper strategies to be activated in each enterprise strongly influences the CN's performance level, and higher levels of network adaptability, agility and competitiveness are achieved. The proposed DSS is validated under real conditions in a food industry network. The DSS is evaluated by emulating real collaborative conditions and is compared with the equivalent non-collaborative decision making perspective used for selecting strategies. The results demonstrate that the collaborative approach outperforms the performance level of the non-collaborative one and is more effective for handling the robustness and the long-term operation of the CN.Andres, B.; Poler, R. (2016). A decision support system for the collaborative selection of strategies in enterprise networks. Decision Support Systems. 91:113-123. doi:10.1016/j.dss.2016.08.005S1131239

Integrating product design into the supply chain

Purpose: The aim of the research is to illustrate how companies can create competitive capabilities through integration of product design into the supply chain. In doing so the paper reveals the challenges and the opportunities that companies face when integrating product design and supply chain. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research is case based and focuses on six companies. Ten interviews were carried out in each of these with senior managers. The Resource-Based View (RBV) is utilised to put these empirical findings into a theoretical context. Findings: The findings reveal a range of opportunities and challenges when integrating product design and the supply chain and subsequently a step-by-step guide is developed to address these. Practical Implications: The research provides key recommendations to companies on how to create competitive capabilities by integrating product design into the supply chain. Originality/Value: This paper provides novel insights to both practitioners and researchers. For practitioners detailed recommendations are given on how they can maximise benefits through integrating product design into the supply chain. The RBV has been harnessed to highlight how integration needs to be balanced with the company’s current resources and capabilities

A hybrid decision support system for managing humanitarian relief chains

Decisions regarding location, allocation and distribution of relief items are among the main concerns of the Humanitarian Relief Chain (HRC) managers in response to no-notice large-scale disasters such as earthquakes. In this paper, a Hybrid Decision Support System (HDSS) consisting of a simulator, a rule-based inference engine, and a knowledge-based system (KBS) is developed to configure a three level HRC. Three main performance measures including the coverage, total cost, and response time are considered to make an explicit trade-off analysis between cost efficiency and responsiveness of the designed HRC. In the first step, the simulator calculates the performance measures of the different configurations of the HRC under generated number of disaster scenarios. Then, the rule-based inference engine attempts to build the best configuration of the HRC including facilities’ locations, relief items’ allocation and distribution plan of the scenario under investigation based on calculated performance measures. Finally, the best configuration for each scenario is stored in the KBS as the extracted knowledge from the above analyses. In this way, the HRC managers can retrieve the most appropriate HRC configuration in accordance with the realized post-disaster scenario in an effective and timely manner. The results of a real case study in Tehran demonstrate that the developed HDSS is an effective tool for fast configuration of HRCs using stochastic data

A decision support system for integrating manufacturing and product design into the reconfiguration of the supply chain networks

A supply chain needs to meet its customers' requirements (CRs) in terms of delivery lead times, total costs and product quality. The objective of this article is to improve the level of integration in all aspects of supply chain reconfiguration, such as the inventory allocation and manufacturing process involved, by incorporating manufacturing and product design into logistic design. The effect of uncertain customer demand, production and supply lead times are studied. An optimum supply chain network is configured by combining optimization at the strategic and tactical level. A system dynamic based computer simulation model is used to validate the operations of the supply chain. The performance of the system is measured in terms of backorders and inventory level. The results and analysis indicate that fewer stockholding points and a shorter review period of demand can improve performance in this respect. In addition, a proposal for improving the performance of supply chain in terms of lower safety stocks is presented. Finally, management decision-making is discussed, among other concluding remarks

An integrated framework for improving supply chain performance

In 2009, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants [Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, (2009). Global SCM excellence study., p.5.] reported that 40% of 234 companies had the wrong priorities in regard to efficiency vs. responsiveness. In 2014, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS) [PwC and APICS, Sustainable supply chains: Making value the priority 2014] found that 76% of 500 supply chain executives identified sustainability as an important aspect of their supply chain. The results highlight the importance of achieving consistency between customer expectations, in terms of cost and service level, and supply chain performance in today’s competitive business environment. Despite this, however, no integrated supply chain design framework exists to control majority of the important functions related to supply chain strategy, structure, process and performance. The literature review showed that simulation is rarely considered at the strategic level, but the research experiments highlighted a number of ways in which simulation tools might be useful at this level, such as exploring the impact of strategic fit and decoupling points, and assessing different supply chain network configurations and policies. This research contributes to knowledge by designing and developing a framework that integrates strategy, process and resources, and allows the use of simulation tools to consider the three dimensions of efficiency, responsiveness and sustainability concurrently during the design process. The proposed framework is validated using a hypothetical supply chain network. Simulation allows performance to be assessed under a range of scenarios. The simulation experiments showed that under the suggested policies, efficiency improved from 25.38% to 30.58% and responsiveness rose from 18.37% to 32.78%. However, they also indicated that while policies oriented towards improving responsiveness had a positive impact on sustainability, those oriented towards improving efficiency had a negative impact. The significance of the research lies in its development of a supply chain design framework that could assist companies in achieving the optimum configuration of supply chain resources, thereby helping them reduce inventory, lower costs, enhance responsiveness and improve strategic focus in terms of design, execution and capital investments

An investigation of the mirroring of supply chain configuration modularity, and product modularity in contemporary supply chains

The introduction of new to market products is a challenge, in high technology markets, where speed and product variation are key considerations. High technology companies require the ability to simultaneously combine operational excellence, customer intimacy and product leadership. A lack of coordination between new product development (NPD), product planning and supply chain configuration (SCC) is a recognised cause of many early-life product failures. This research has one objective: to increase our understanding of the role of modularity in linking SCC and NPD decisions. The research incorporates general systems theory (GST) and knowledge-based theory (KBT), in mirroring product modularity (PM) and SCC modularity (SCCM) within contemporary supply networks. A systematic literature review (SLR) advocates the use of modular design, in linking these concepts and boosting the rate of innovation. The literature indicates that product architecture (PA) and SCC tend to be mirrored in modularity levels, post product launch, and this mirroring is desirable. The literature identified a gap in how SCCM is conceptualised, and how this mirroring manifests itself. These gaps are addressed in the empirical research conducted in project two, where the SCCM construct was developed and used to assess the manifestation and benefits of PM and SCCM mirroring across ten products (UoA) in five case companies across four industry sectors. Mirroring is evident, in six of the UoA, the remaining four UoA exhibit a medium level of mirroring, post product launch. The contribution to theory is a conceptualisation of SCCM where supply chain tiering is a main indicator. Propensity for modules to decouple; early supplier involvement, and a mirrored product and SCC life cycle perspective are the three causal linkages which enable mirroring of PM and SCCM post product launch. The SLR identified the use of co-development (CD), feedback (FC) and feedforward anticipatory control (FAC) at concept design to increase the mirroring of PM and SCCM, post product launch. In project three hypotheses were tested which advocate the use of these mechanisms, and the associated underlying mechanisms were investigated. The findings indicate use of CD and FAC, but a lack of FC, and mirroring support for platform design. The contribution to practice is an intervention framework applied at the concept stage that improves the coordination between NPD, SCC and product planning for new to market products

Consolidated cold chain design for fresh fruit supply chains in developing countries: A simulation study

Fresh fruit has become a major consumption item for city dwellers and the demand has continuously increased in recent years. A significant proportion of fresh fruit globally is grown by developing countries in tropical regions, especially in Asia, and exported to other countries. This has become an important source of economic income for many developing countries, such as Thailand. Nevertheless, the fresh fruit industry in developing countries is experiencing critical issues, including short shelf life, high wastage, poor quality, and food safety, due to operations in high-temperature environment. Studies reveal that many developed countries have successfully solved these problems by using a cold supply chain with tight temperature control throughout the entire supply chain process. Cold supply chain adoption usually requires heavy investment in infrastructure and technology, as well as technical knowledge training for operational staff to ensure temperature compliance along the supply chain. In developing countries where capital resources are limited, this so-called high-tech high-cost approach has proven to be an obstacle to widespread cold supply chain adoption. As such, the design adopted by developed countries to implement a fresh fruit cold supply chain might not be directly applicable to developing countries, due to the lack of cold chain infrastructure and equipment and the low level of technical know-how. To address this issue, this study presents a proposal for adopting a low-tech low-cost approach by focusing more on available resources, such as cheap labour, and flexibility in work practices such as work shifts, than on infrastructure and technology in designing cold chain systems for developing countries. It is considered that this option would be more viable for developing countries with limited capital resources and know-how, and would thus enable widespread cold supply chain adoption. It could also play a vital role in the transition of cold supply chain implementation from a nascent stage to a mature development, whereby the high-tech high-cost approach of the developed countries would more readily be adopted. This study incorporates insights from multiple theoretical perspectives, including the theory of constraint (TOC) and network theory (NT), to underpin the low-tech low-cost approach proposed. Two alternative low-tech cold supply chain designs are investigated and developed based upon a comprehensive literature review of the state of the art in the field. Owing to the fact that fresh fruit cold chain adoption is still relatively rare in developing countries, this study explores different approaches to low-tech cold supply chain design for fresh fruits using simulation as a tool. A traditional fresh mango supply chain in Thailand, which involves five farms, three processors, one transporter and one middleman company, was used as a case study to facilitate the exploration. Discrete-event simulation was employed to evaluate the changes in performance of the typical mango supply chain before and after the adoption of the cold supply chain design. Key performance indicators, such as lead time, total operating cost, shelf life, wastage, and throughput, of the current supply chain and the different cold chain designs were compared. The findings reveal that cold supply chain design using the low-tech low-cost approach performs better in all aspects than the other design relying solely on infrastructure investment. Scenario tests also show that such a design is more robust than the other infrastructure-oriented design when facing fluctuations in demand and increases in labour cost in the long run. By proposing an innovative approach to cold chain design for developing countries and exploring its feasibility using computer simiultaion, this study makes a significant contribution to practice by showing the potential benefits of a low-tech low-cost approach to cold chain adoption in developing countries, thereby expeditng its implementation. It also contributes to knowledge by creating a new scope for research in cold chain design leveraging labour resource, change in work practices, and collaboration instead of merely infrastructure and technology

Multi-objective optimisation of dynamic short-term credit portfolio selection :the adoption of third party logistics credit for financing working capital contrained small and medium sized enterprises in supply chains

PhD ThesisMany companies, especially small and medium sized enterprises, are faced with liquidity problems. The shortage of working capital in their businesses has prevented supply chains from achieving effectiveness and efficiency in management. Although they can access short-term loans from banks and suppliers, the willingness of these credit lenders to lend short-term capital is often restricted by the fact that they cannot monitor whether or how their customers will use the loans according to the agreements. In many cases, this fact makes it difficult for capitalconstrained companies to obtain sufficient working capital from existing funding sources. A business practice called Integrated Logistics and Financial Service has been developed, which can improve banks’ monitoring of how their loans will eventually be used via the alliance of third party logistics companies and banks. The emergence of credit offered by third party logistics companies (termed as 3PLC) provides more choices for working capital constrained companies. Following on traditional bank overdrafts and trade credit, the new 3PLC became the third type of credit available to short-term working capital constrained companies. A new issue arising from this situation is how a working capital constrained company can determine a credit portfolio from multiple working capital sources. Current studies of credit portfolio management are still silent in considering 3PLC. Moreover, limited studies have integrated credit portfolio management into material flow management in supply chains. In light of the aforementioned discussions, this thesis aims to optimise dynamic credit portfolio management in supply chains to achieve the different business objectives of working capital constrained companies. To achieve the above aims, this thesis firstly applies an analytic hierarchy process and linear programming model to optimise a single objective. It applies the analytic hierarchy process to evaluate the concerns of working capital-constrained companies in selecting credit. These concerns are identified through a thorough literature review focusing on the considerations of small and medium sized enterprises’ in borrowing short-term credit. The analytic hierarchy process has been applied to determine the priority of the identified concerns and the preferences of borrowers for bank overdrafts, trade credit and 3PLC. A linear programming model has been developed based on the results obtained from the analytic hierarchy process model. It determines the maximum borrowing amount for a given period from multiple credit sources. To reflect the complexity of working capital constrained companies borrowing credit, thisthesis has extended the model from single objective optimisation to multiple objectives optimisation. Consequently, a goal-programming model has been developed. This model provides the solution of optimizing two business objectives including overall cost and backorder penalty cost minimization. Numerical examples have been conducted to test and analyse all the mathematical models. This thesis contributes the following aspects: 1) the new 3PLC together with bank overdraft and trade credit have been considered into credit portfolio management; 2) borrower’s concerns and credit preferences relating to the three types of credit have been identified and evaluated; 3) mathematical models have been developed for credit portfolio selection over multiple periods