Modeling Supply Chain Configuration Based on Colored Petri Nets

Abstract—This paper introduces an integrated modeling and analysis formalism based on colored Petri nets (CPNs) for supply chain configuration and evaluation. The structural changes of different configurations are explicitly expressed and formalized as CPNs. The formalism can deal with such issues as generic variety representation, constraint compliance and material flow control. The rationale of modeling supply chain configuration is to capture explicitly important information related to the supply chain network in conjunction with product, process and logistics decision making. Keywords—supply chain configuration, colored Petri nets I

Dynamic mutual adjustment search for supply chain operations planning coordination

RÉSUMÉ Les chaînes d’approvisionnement sont des systèmes complexes comprenant plusieurs organisations indépendantes avec des objectifs différents dans un environnement incertain et dynamique. Une question clé dans la gestion de chaîne d’approvisionnement (Supply Chain Management) est la coordination des décisions de planification des opérations. Les systèmes de planification de chaîne d’approvisionnement introduits dans la littérature peuvent être classés en deux systèmes de planification principaux: les systèmes de planification centralisés et les systèmes de planification décentralisés. Les systèmes centralisés peuvent théoriquement optimiser les performances de la chaîne d’approvisionnement bien que leur mise en œuvre nécessite un haut degré d’échange d’informations entre les partenaires de la chaîne d’approvisionnement. Cela conduit à des difficultés lorsque des partenaires indépendants ne veulent pas partager l’information. Afin de répondre à ces difficultés, les systèmes décentralisés de planification des opérations sont conçus dans lesquels chaque membre est une entité économique distincte qui prend ses décisions opérationnelles de manière indépendante, mais avec un niveau minimal d’échange d’information. Dans cette thèse, nous étudions dans un premier temps les méthodes de coordination des processus de planification des opérations dans les chaînes d’approvisionnement proposées dans la littérature. Ensuite, nous proposons un cadre de classification de ces méthodes basée sur la technologie mise en œuvre, et identifions des opportunités de recherches. Dans un deuxième temps, nous proposons une approche de coordination décentralisée qui consiste en un ajustement mutuel des décisions de planification basé sur la programmation mathématique et l’échange d’incitatifs financiers. Ce mécanisme, contrairement à un système centralisé traditionnel, implique deux entreprises, qui interagissent l’une avec l’autre afin d’améliorer leur performance. Dans le cadre de cette approche, seul un petit sous ensemble des solutions de coordination sont considérées, et l’expérimentation montre que cette approche de coordination a un potentiel d’amélioration du profit global tout en préservant l’équité en termes de partage des bénéfices de l’amélioration. Enfin, afin de proposer une méthode de coordination capable d’être utilisable dans le contexte dynamique des chaînes d’approvisionnement, cette thèse propose dans un premier temps une stratégie performante de négociation du fournisseur adaptée à l’approche de coordination proposée, ainsi qu’une stratégie de partage des revenus appliquée à un contexte d’horizon roulant. L’analyse de la performance de cette méthode particulière montre également que l’approche proposée produit une stratégie gagnante-gagnante pour les deux partenaires de la chaîne d’approvisionnement et améliore les résultats de planification.----------ABSTRACT Supply chains are complex systems, which include several independent organizations with different objectives, in dynamic uncertain environment. A key issue in supply chain management (SCM) is the coordination of supply chain operations planning decisions. Supply chain planning systems introduced in the literature can be classified into two main planning systems: centralized and decentralized planning systems. Centralized systems can theoretically optimize supply chain performance although its implementation requires a high degree of information exchange among supply chain partners. This leads to difficulties when independent partners do not want to share information. In order to address these difficulties, decentralized systems are designed for supply chains where each member is a separate economic entity that makes its operational decisions independently, yet with some minimal level of information sharing. In this thesis, we first review supply chain operations planning coordination methods from centralized to decentralized approaches proposed in the literature. Next, we propose a classification scheme of these approaches based on the technology used by the authors. Finally, we identify research opportunities. Second, we propose a decentralized operations planning coordination mechanism referred to as mutual adjustment search (MAS), which is based on a negotiation-like mutual adjustment of planning decisions with financial incentives and rooted in mathematical programming. This mechanism, unlike traditional centralized system, involves two independent enterprises linked by material and non-strategic information flows, which interact with each other in order to coordinate their operations planning, and to improve their individual and collective performance. In this approach, only a few coordination solutions (pairs of coordinated operations plans) are considered and computational analysis shows that this coordination mechanism has the potential to improve global profit, while maintaining fairness in terms of revenue sharing. Finally, in order to develop an approach capable of supporting the dynamic coordination of operations planning in a rolling horizon context, this thesis first proposes a negotiation strategy for the supplier, as well as a revenue sharing protocol. Computational analysis shows that the proposed approach produces a win-win strategy for two partners of supply chain and improves the results of upstream planning

An effective tool for supply chain decision support during new product development process

The global marketplace has transformed supply chain design into a discipline which requires business sense supported by mathematical expertise. Several methods have been introduced to support supply chain design, most notably mixed integer programming. The current methods are tailor-made for situations where a product's bill-of-material is fixed. However, this assumption does not hold during product development where several competing product designs exist. Therefore this research investigates the question of what is an effective way to support supply chain decisions during new product development. The study is divided into four research questions, corresponding to the articles from which the dissertation is compiled: (1) Does a product structure-driven method exist for modeling and analyzing supply chains? (2) If such a method is discovered, what is its mathematical formulation? (3) Is there evidence to support the theoretical and practical usability of such a method? (4) How can strategic supply chain decisions be validated? Regarding question (1) the research finds that there is a shortage of methods that fulfill supply chain modeling and analysis requirements imposed by new product development process. During the research a Petri-net based method was constructed which satisfies these requirements. For question (2), the formal definitions of the constructed Petri net class are provided. Regarding question (3), the research finds that the created method and associated tool are useful aids when solving the question of the effect of demand variation and the number of product variants on the optimal supply chain. Furthermore, interviews with end users of the tool implementation provide evidence of the Petri net method's practical usefulness. Regarding question (4), the research finds that the validation of strategic supply chain decisions from companies' reporting systems is important, but it has not become a common practice due to the challenges in integrating various IT systems