Integrated decision support model for global sourcing

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-109).Over the last decade, the U.S. aircraft industry has experienced increasing levels of international integration as companies seek to access global talent and resources, cut production costs, spread financial risk, and secure access to airplane markets throughout the world. In an increasingly complex environment, decision makers seek an effective framework to evaluate the true benefits, costs and risks of sourcing alternatives-both relating to the short-term effects of selecting particular suppliers or groups of suppliers, as well as the long-term effects of redrawing their firm boundary and developing a more vertically disintegrated supply chain. This thesis is an examination of strategic sourcing decision practices at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, based on a six-month internship study with the Future Airplane Production group in Seattle, Washington. In this thesis we will discuss the application of strategic analysis, lean operational analysis, managerial accounting, and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to improve existing sourcing analysis practices. An integrated decision support model is introduced to represent key sourcing decision factors, their relative importance, and the expected benefits, costs and risks to stakeholders related to each factor (comparing two sourcing alternatives). Using a weighted average, the model expressly indicates the relative value of each alternative. The model is applied to two case studies involving local insourcing and offshore outsourcing, respectively. This study demonstrates the need for incorporating explicit valuation of 'softer' strategic, operational and risk components along with the 'hard' financial analysis when making sourcing decisions.by Victor A. Mroczkowski.S.M.M.B.A

Agent Based Modeling and Simulation Framework for Supply Chain Risk Management

This research develops a flexible agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS) framework for supply chain risk management with significant enhancements to standard ABMS methods and supply chain risk modeling. Our framework starts with the use of software agents to gather and process input data for use in our simulation model. For our simulation model, we extend an existing mathematical framework for discrete event simulation (DES) to ABMS and then implement the concepts of variable resolution modeling from the DES domain to ABMS and provide further guidelines for aggregation and disaggregation of supply chain models. Existing supply chain risk management research focuses on consumable item supply chains. Since the Air Force supply chain contains many reparable items, we fill this gap with our risk metrics framework designed for reparable item supply chains, which have greater complexity than consumable item supply chains. We present new metrics, along with existing metrics, in a framework for reparable item supply chain risk management and discuss aggregation and disaggregation of metrics for use with our variable resolution modeling

An Empirical Investigation of Supply Chain Excellence in Healthcare

This research is motivated by opportunities to improve the cost and quality of healthcare delivery through improved supply chain processes. This research assesses the quality of the healthcare supply chain and identifies factors that are driving supply chain excellence among organizations in the healthcare industry. The first objective of this research is to assess the state of quality measurement in the healthcare supply chain. The achievement of this first objective is presented in Chapter 3 of this dissertation in the form of a manuscript accepted for publication in The Quality Management Journal. The second research objective is to develop an optimization-based methodology to extract the maximum amount of survey data from a dataset containing missing responses. The work in support of the second objective is presented in Chapter 4 as a second revision of a manuscript under review by the International Journal of Data Analysis Techniques & Strategies. The third research objective is to identify the cost and quality factors that are driving supply chain excellence among organizations in the healthcare industry through empirical analysis. The achievement of the third objective is presented in Chapter 5. The contributions of this work can be used by healthcare supply chain researchers and practitioners to assess and improve their healthcare supply chain operations

Supply Chain Risk Assessment for Perishable Products Applying System Dynamics Methodology - A Case of Fast Fashion Apparel Industry

With the fast progress of science and technology and with the continuously growing customer expectations, share of merchandise exhibiting characteristics of perishability is on the rise. Perishable products, through their own nature, are subject to decay, deterioration or obsolescence. As a result, their usefulness, value or functionality is gradually reduced or even lost in a short window of time and cannot be regained if it is not used or sold within a specific time window. When producing perishable products, all stages of the supply chain are exposed to much higher uncertainty than in the case of durable products, which directly means higher risk. The phases of inventory planning, lead time control, and demand forecasting for perishable products play a critical role in the overall effectiveness of the supply chain. For this reason, the system dynamics methodology, a simulation and modeling technique developed specifically to address the long term and dynamic management issues, is adopted in this study. The focus of the proposed model is on the interaction between physical processes, information flows and managerial policies of a three-level supply chain for perishable products, in general, and fast fashion apparel supply chain, in particular, so as to create the dynamics of the variables of interest. The values of supply chain key factors such as, for example, inventory, backlogs, stock-outs, forecast error, cost, and profit for each time period are some of the outputs of the proposed model. Moreover, the Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR) measure is applied to quantify and analyze the risks associated with the supply chain for this type of product and also to determine the expected value of the losses and their corresponding probabilities. With the focus on three prominent categories of risks including risks of delays, forecast, and inventory, multiple business situations for effective strategic planning and decision making are generated and analyzed

Developing a conceptual framework to analyse supply chain design practices

Analysis of the supply chain is necessary to improve performance. For this reason, supply chain management (SCM) has received a lot of attention recently and supply chain design (SCD) is a concept that forms an integral part of the adoption and implementation of SCM. Effective SCD contributes towards better supply chain integration (SCI) which, in turn, contributes towards improved supply chain performance. The focus of this study is on the analysis of SCD practices. Designing the supply chain structure is a complex and demanding undertaking that needs to be aligned with the needs of the supply chain’s end customers, because their needs ultimately have to be satisfied. This study proposes a conceptual framework that has been developed from literature to assist organisations in the analysis of their SCD practices, with the aim of improving supply chain performance. The conceptual framework was exploratively tested by means of empirical research to determine whether it can be used as an assessment tool to assess the SCD practices of organisations. The study concluded that the conceptual framework that was developed in this study can be used as an assessment tool with which organisations can analyse their SCD practices.Business ManagementD. Com. (Business Management