Network design decisions in supply chain planning

Structuring global supply chain networks is a complex decision-making process. The typical inputs to such a process consist of a set of customer zones to serve, a set of products to be manufactured and distributed, demand projections for the different customer zones, and information about future conditions, costs (e.g. for production and transportation) and resources (e.g. capacities, available raw materials). Given the above inputs, companies have to decide where to locate new service facilities (e.g. plants, warehouses), how to allocate procurement and production activities to the variousmanufacturing facilities, and how to manage the transportation of products through the supply chain network in order to satisfy customer demands. We propose a mathematical modelling framework capturing many practical aspects of network design problems simultaneously. For problems of reasonable size we report on computational experience with standard mathematical programming software. The discussion is extended with other decisions required by many real-life applications in strategic supply chain planning. In particular, the multi-period nature of some decisions is addressed by a more comprehensivemodel, which is solved by a specially tailored heuristic approach. The numerical results suggest that the solution procedure can identify high quality solutions within reasonable computational time

A fuzzy optimization approach for procurement transport operational planning in an automobile supply chain

We consider a real-world automobile supply chain in which a first-tier supplier serves an assembler and determines its procurement transport planning for a second-tier supplier by using the automobile assembler's demand information, the available capacity of trucks and inventory levels. The proposed fuzzy multi-objective integer linear programming model (FMOILP) improves the transport planning process for material procurement at the first-tier supplier level, which is subject to product groups composed of items that must be ordered together, order lot sizes, fuzzy aspiration levels for inventory and used trucks and uncertain truck maximum available capacities and minimum percentages of demand in stock. Regarding the defuzzification process, we apply two existing methods based on the weighted average method to convert the FMOILP into a crisp MOILP to then apply two different aggregation functions, which we compare, to transform this crisp MOILP into a single objective MILP model. A sensitivity analysis is included to show the impact of the objectives weight vector on the final solutions. The model, based on the full truck load material pick method, provides the quantity of products and number of containers to be loaded per truck and period. An industrial automobile supply chain case study demonstrates the feasibility of applying the proposed model and the solution methodology to a realistic procurement transport planning problem. The results provide lower stock levels and higher occupation of the trucks used to fulfill both demand and minimum inventory requirements than those obtained by the manual spreadsheet-based method. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.This work has been funded partly by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology project: Production technology based on the feedback from production, transport and unload planning and the redesign of warehouses decisions in the supply chain (Ref. DPI2010-19977) and by the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia project 'Material Requirement Planning Fourth Generation (MRPIV) (Ref. PAID-05-12)'.Díaz-Madroñero Boluda, FM.; Peidro Payá, D.; Mula, J. (2014). A fuzzy optimization approach for procurement transport operational planning in an automobile supply chain. Applied Mathematical Modelling. 38(23):5705-5725. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apm.2014.04.053S57055725382

Supply optimization model in the hierarchical geographically distributed organization

The strategic importance of the procurement function in the large organizations management requires using effective tools by the logistics management to justify decisions in the supply process. The architecture features of hierarchical geographically distributed organizations allow the use of a hybrid supply scheme that rationally combines the advantages of centralized and decentralized purchasing and supply management (PSM). The article suggests a supply optimization model in the hierarchical geographically distributed organization (HGDO), reflecting the features of a complex, multifactorial and multi-stage procurement process. The model allows to find the optimal options for purchasing and supplying products for the criterion of minimizing the total logistics costs that characterize this process for the entire period of planning HGDO logistics support, taking into account the values of the various parameters of participants and the logistics functions of the procurement process over each period of time. The model is an effective tool for supporting and coordinating decisions made by logistics managers at different levels of management of HGDO based on numerous options for purchasing and supplying products and their budgeting in conditions of the dynamics and diversity of internal and external factors of influence

A supplier selection strategy within the Malaysian telecommunications industry

The telecommunication industry in Malaysia has grown rapidly over the last 15 years, with effective supply chain management becoming increasing important within the sector. A multitude of providers and part owned Malaysian government companies, vendors and suppliers are involved in generating and creating value-adding products and services within this sector (across wireless, wireline, broadband business and consumer lines of business). This paper describes key challenges facing a major telecoms service provider in Malaysia with regards to drivers involved in the overall procurement and supplier selection with regards to components of performance management, decision-making, selection techniques, quality and cost management, procurement policy and procurement ethics. This paper further focuses on defining and detailing research currently being undertaken to develop a framework for identifying supplier selection drivers that are inherent within the sector and suggests a research approach to investigate and develop strategies for supplier selection for the telecommunications industry in Malaysia

A Buffer Stocks Model for Stabilizing Price in Duopoly-Like Market

This paper presents the staple-food distribution problem in agro-industry. There is a great difference of staple-food supplies in the harvest-season and in the planting-season meanwhile the demand is relatively constant. This situation will trigger price-volatility and shortage of staple-food, and it causes opportunity-losses for the stakeholders (producer, consumer, wholesaler/trader, and the government). For stabilizing the price, the government has several stabilization policies; one of them is market-intervention policy by using buffer-stocks schemes. The market-intervention policy should be utilized for improving producer’s profit, for cutting consumer’s expenditure, and for sustaining wholesaler’s margin-profit by implementing price-support and price-stabilization. In duopoly-like market, we assume that there are only two market-players in the distribution system. The objective of this research is to determine the instruments for operating Market-Intervention Program which consist of the quantity, time, and price of the buffer-stocks schemes. The problem was solved using 3 approaches. First, a comparative cost/benefit analysis between free-market and intervention-market can be used to formulate the objective function of each stakeholders. Second, the integration of optimization model and econometrics model were use to develop the decision-variables subject to the expectation of stakeholders, the buffer-stocks requirement, and the dynamics price equilibrium properties. Third, model market with Inventory was applied for solving the market-price equilibrium. The result could be used to analyze such the staple-food distribution system, incorporating the configuration of duo-producers, duo market-buyers, and duo-consumers. Keywords: buffer-stocks, duopoly-like market, market-intervention program, model market with inventory, and staple-food distribution system

Optimization models of the supply of power structures’ organizational units with centralized procurement

Management of the state power structures’ organizational units for materiel and technical support requires the use of effective tools for supporting decisions, due to the complexity, interdependence, and dynamism of supply in the market economy. The corporate nature of power structures is of particular interest to centralized procurement management, as it provides significant advantages through coordination, eliminating duplication, and economy of scale. This article presents optimization models of the supply of state power structures’ organizational units with centralized procurement, for different levels of simulated materiel and technical support processes. The models allow us to find the most profitable options for state power structures’ organizational supply units in a centre-oriented logistics system in conditions of the changing needs, volume of allocated funds, and logistics costs that accompany the process of supply, by maximizing the provision level of organizational units with necessary material and technical resources for the entire planning period of supply by minimizing the total logistical costs, taking into account the diverse nature and the different priorities of organizational units and material and technical resources

A Facility Location-Allocation Model for Determining Number of Depot to Distribute Material in the Rattan Furniture Industry by Considering Dynamic Demand

This paper is a study of a facility location-allocation problem in the rattan furniture industry. There are six production centers (PCs) of rattan furniture in Surakarta and its surroundings. However, their export sales are decline due to some possible problems in raw rattan distribution network from the sources centers (SCs), e.g. Borneo and Celebes Island to production centers. In the previous research, the model was expanded to support local government decide to determine optimal number of depot by consider static demand. This policy is aimed to cut the distribution channel and reduce total supply chain costs. Due to changing of global market, the demand is fluctuate. The previous model cannot anticipate this situation; consequently the local government needs a facility location-allocation model by considering dynamic demand. The objective of this research is to develop a model for supporting the local government to decide optimal number of depot by considers dynamic demand. A mixed integer non-linear programming (MINLP) was proposed to minimize total supply chain costs. The proposed model assumed that the demand for multiple products is known in advance. The potential raw rattan depot and source locations as well as their maximum capacities are also known. Finally, the proposed model can be used as instrument decision making to determine facility location-allocation. Keywords: dynamic demand, a facility location-allocation model, rattan industry competitiveness, total supply chain costs

Research Directions in Information Systems for Humanitarian Logistics

This article systematically reviews the literature on using IT (Information Technology) in humanitarian logistics focusing on disaster relief operations. We first discuss problems in humanitarian relief logistics. We then identify the stage and disaster type for each article as well as the article’s research methodology and research contribution. Finally, we identify potential future research directions

Flexible Decision Control in an Autonomous Trading Agent

An autonomous trading agent is a complex piece of software that must operate in a competitive economic environment and support a research agenda. We describe the structure of decision processes in the MinneTAC trading agent, focusing on the use of evaluators – configurable, composable modules for data analysis and prediction that are chained together at runtime to support agent decision-making. Through a set of examples, we show how this structure supports sales and procurement decisions, and how those decision processes can be modified in useful ways by changing evaluator configurations. To put this work in context, we also report on results of an informal survey of agent design approaches among the competitors in the Trading Agent Competition for Supply Chain Management (TAC SCM).autonomous trading agent;decision processes