Improvement on service part supply chain with centralized management and global optimization

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 43).This project was performed under the supervision of the global supply chain department of InFocus Corp. The company is having high service costs in the Asia Pacific region and desperate to lower the cost in the reverse supply chain and to improve the service level to its customers. In this thesis report, InFocus' current reverse supply chain networks in different business regions were reviewed and detailed analysis was performed for the Asia Pacific region. The results of the analysis showed that the service part supply chain in the Asia Pacific was inefficient and costly due to redundant echelon, insufficient information sharing and lack of centralized management. A shorter and more centralized supply chain was proposed. A comparison was made and various key performance indicators were used to judge the effectiveness of the improvements. The analysis showed that the proposed supply chain has lower costs, lesser safety stock, and higher service levels. Transportation was also shown to be more flexible and cost effective through the proposed replenishment policies. Strategic 3PL partnership and vendor managed inventory (VMI) were also discussed in the later part of the report. Future work can be devoted in these areas to explore the potential of further improvement in the reverse supply chain.by Jun Rao.M.Eng

After sales supply chain risk management.

Lean supply chains with cost optimized production and logistics processes in the automotive industry have become a benchmark for other industries. Short delivery times, low inventories and high availability are parameters which assume a robust supply chain. In industrial practice we see, however, that in the After Sales business particularly related to the supply of automotive spare parts, that there are always unforeseen delays in delivery. In order to avoid service level losses on the focal firm level due to missing parts it is necessary to understand the risk structure on the supplier side. For this reason, a risk model for the After Sales inbound SC is developed through this work. Based on an extensive analysis of delivery data a central risk size was derived. Comprehensively researched SC risks are supplemented by After Sales specific risks derived through an empirical supplier survey. A reference network, which is methodologically based on the Bayesian theorem, to control the dynamic relationships was developed. The developed risk model allows for the identification of proactive and reactive measures by top-down and bottom-up analyzes to make lean supply chains for after sales requirements in the best cases robust and resilient. A big advantage of the developed model is not only the ability to quantify the cause and effect of supply chain risks but also to describe the constantly changing risk environment of the supply chain through continuous belief updates within the model. The risk analysis in the developed model potentially reduces the delivery delay of spare parts by 65 percent and diminishes the buffer stock value by 50 percent. To achieve such improvements in the real world organizations must be able to implement measures in explicit SC risk clusters for sustainable supply chain performance and inventory management. Improvements in the internal supplier processes, due to risks like prioritized series supply, or inappropriate after sales supply strategies are necessary. Utilizing the developed After Sales Risk Management Model (ASRIM) organizations will be able to implement proactive risk mitigation strategies, facilitating agile SC performance, while simultaneously reducing buffer stocks

Internal Supply-chain Competition In Remanufacturing: Operations Strategies, Performance And Environmental Effects

This paper investigates the competitive and environmental effects of different operations strategies of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and semi-independent remanufacturers, which simultaneously cooperate and compete in different stages of a closed-loop supply chain. In particular, a co-opetitive situation, in which remanufacturing is undertaken only by retailers while the OEMs' role is restricted to recycling is considered. After adopting a resource-based perspective of competition, investigations are accomplished using system dynamics simulation modelling. The results of simulations indicate that, in the long run, OEMs, regardless of the operation strategy they adopt, are unable to (re)capture the market gained by the remanufacturers. However, some of these strategies contribute to the improvement of the environmental performance of the entire supply chain

Allocating service parts in two-echelon networks at a utility company

We study a multi-item, two-echelon, continuous-review inventory problem at a Dutch utility company, Liander. We develop a model that optimizes the quantities of service parts and their allocation in the two-echelon network under an aggregate waiting time restriction. Specific aspects that we address are emergency shipments in case of stockout, and batching for regular replenishment orders at the central warehouse. We use column generation as a basic technique to solve this problem, and use various building blocks for single-item models as columns. Further, we study options to derive simple classification rules from the solution of our multi-item, two-echelon service part optimization problem using statistical techniques. Application of our models at Liander yields a solution that reduces costs by 15% and decreases the impact of waiting time for service parts by 52%

A framework for closed-loop supply chains of reusable articles

Reuse practices contribute to the environmental and economical sustainability of production and distribution systems. Surprisingly, reuse closed-loop supply chains (CLSC) have not been widely researched for the moment. In this paper, we explore the scientific literature on reuse and we propose a framework for reusable articles. This conceptual structure includes a typology integrating under the reusable articles term different categories of articles (transportation items, packaging materials, tools) and addresses the management issues that arise in reuse CLSC. We ground our results in a set of case studies developed in real industrial settings, which have also been contrasted with cases available in existing literature.reverse logistics;case studies;closed-loop supply chains;returns managment

E-business and circular supply chains : increased business opportunities by IT-based customer oriented return-flow management

This paper deals with the application of IT in circular supply chains (CSCs). We consider information on the installed base critical, and present an illustrative example. Next we discuss a framework of different kinds of value contained in a return, and IT-applications useful in supporting its recovery or neutralisation in case of negative externalities. Also we show which kind of CSC is needed for which kind of return. We illustrate our work by three real life case studies.reverse logistics;supply chain management;electronic commerce;product life cycle