Integrated analytical hierarchy process and grey relational analysis approach to measure supply chain complexity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the drivers that create complexity in the supply chain and develop a mathematical model to measure the level of supply chain complexity (SCC). Design/Methodology/Approach of the paper – Through extensive literature review, we discussed various drivers of SCC. These drivers were classified into five dimensions based on expert opinion. Moreover, a novel hybrid mathematical model was developed by integrating analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and grey relational analysis (GRA) methods to measure the level of SCC. A case study was conducted to demonstrate the applicability of the developed model and analyze the SCC level of the company in the study. Findings – We identified twenty-two drivers of SCC, which were further clustered into five complexity dimensions. The application of the developed model to the company in the case study showed that the SCC level of the company was 0.44, signifying that there was a considerable scope of improvement in terms of minimizing complexity. The company that serves as the focus of this case study mainly needs improvement in tackling issues concerning government regulation, internal communication and information sharing, and company culture. Originality/Value – In this paper, we propose a model by integrating AHP and GRA methods that can measure the SCC level based on various complexity drivers. The combination of such methods, considering their ability to convert the inheritance and interdependence of drivers into a single mathematical model, is preferred over other techniques. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt at developing a hybrid multicriteria decision-based model to quantify SCC.© 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited. This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY–NC 4.0) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Dynamic Complexities in a Supply Chain System with Lateral Transshipments

The horizontal interaction between retailers, coupled with replenishment rules and time delays, makes the dynamics in supply chain systems highly complicated. This paper aims to explore the impacts of lateral transshipments on the stability, bullwhip effect, and other performance measurements in the context of a two-tiered supply chain system composed of one supplier and two retailers. In particular, we developed a unified discrete-time state space model to address two different scenarios of placing orders. Analytical stability results are derived, through which we found that inappropriate lateral transshipment policies readily destabilize the supply chain system. Moreover, the lead time of lateral transshipments further complicates the stability problem. Theoretical results are validated through simulation experiments and the influences of system parameters on performance measures are investigated numerically. Numerical simulations show that lateral transshipments help improve the customer service level for both retailers. It is also interesting to observe that the demand of the two retailers can be satisfied even if only one retailer places orders from the upstream supplier