Supply Chain

Traditionally supply chain management has meant factories, assembly lines, warehouses, transportation vehicles, and time sheets. Modern supply chain management is a highly complex, multidimensional problem set with virtually endless number of variables for optimization. An Internet enabled supply chain may have just-in-time delivery, precise inventory visibility, and up-to-the-minute distribution-tracking capabilities. Technology advances have enabled supply chains to become strategic weapons that can help avoid disasters, lower costs, and make money. From internal enterprise processes to external business transactions with suppliers, transporters, channels and end-users marks the wide range of challenges researchers have to handle. The aim of this book is at revealing and illustrating this diversity in terms of scientific and theoretical fundamentals, prevailing concepts as well as current practical applications

Information Sharing for improved Supply Chain Collaboration – Simulation Analysis

Collaboration among consumer good’s manufacturer and retailers is vital in order to elevate their performance. Such mutual cooperation’s, focusing beyond day to day business and transforming from a contract-based relationship to a value-based relationship is well received in the industries. Further coupling of information sharing with the collaboration is valued as an effective forward step. The advent of technologies naturally supports information sharing across the supply chain. Satisfying consumers demand is the main goal of any supply chain, so studying supply chain behaviour with demand as a shared information, makes it more beneficial. This thesis analyses demand information sharing in a two-stage supply chain. Three different collaboration scenarios (None, Partial and Full) are simulated using Discrete Event Simulation and their impact on supply chain costs analyzed. Arena software is used to simulate the inventory control scenarios. The test simulation results show that the total system costs decrease with the increase in the level of information sharing. There is 7% cost improvement when the information is partially shared and 43% improvement when the information is fully shared in comparison with the no information sharing scenario. The proposed work can assist decision makers in design and planning of information sharing scenarios between various supply chain partners to gain competitive advantage

Electronic supply chain management systems in managing the bullwhip effect on selected fast moving consumer goods.

Ph. D. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2014.The amplitude in order variability as orders surge upstream a supply chain epitomises a phenomenon commonly called the bullwhip effect. The real consumer demand orders are comparatively and tentatively evinced less variability while trading supply chain members on the midstream and upstream stages experience the amplified order vacillations. The oscillator effect reveals a number of pernicious problems throughout the supply chain networks, as downstream sites include harmful bloated inventory and shortages with poor customer service, and the midstream and upstream sites depict the disharmonic capacity on improper planning and inconsistent scheduling in production. This study investigates the selected fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry on the amplified consumer demand order variability as orders cascade from downstream (retailers) to the midstream as well as upstream sites of the supply chain network.The effect of electronically-enabled supply chain management (e-SCM) systems remains the central hypothesis for instant information sharing on inventory positioning, integrated supply chain management processes and improved profitability through positive performance targets and outcomes across supply chain trading partners. The main objective aims to understand the on extent of the relationship to which the phenomenon of bullwhip effect can be explained by e-SCM system diffusion, optimal inventory positioning, strategic information sharing and global optimisation strategies. These seamless linkages between supply chain partners seem to entrench velocity on quasi-real-time information flow in consumer demand and supply sides, inventory status and availability, and capacity availability. This study found empirical research evidence on e-SCM systems that retail supply chain businesses have fastidiously adapted to technology clockspeed for the last five years. The majority of the respondents (92%) for both upstream and downstream echelon categories agreed that e-SCM systems have a significant role to play in mitigating the consumer demand order variability in the supply chain network. This study further discovered that the migration from in-house IT systems to integrated e-SCM systems (65%) would entrench close integration of information exchange and processes across different parts of the organisation and inter-organisational linkages. The e-SCM systems diffusion also depicted a positive linear relationship to the extent to which the organisations efficiently and timeously communicate the future strategic needs and demand order replenishments throughout the entire supply chain network. However, the access to advance economic information negatively related to e-SCM systems with the virtue of legal constraints and template-based information attachments

Energy and Carbon Dioxide Impacts from Lean Logistics and Retailing Systems: A Discrete-event Simulation Approach for the Consumer Goods Industry

abstract: Consumer goods supply chains have gradually incorporated lean manufacturing principles to identify and reduce non-value-added activities. Companies implementing lean practices have experienced improvements in cost, quality, and demand responsiveness. However certain elements of these practices, especially those related to transportation and distribution may have detrimental impact on the environment. This study asks: What impact do current best practices in lean logistics and retailing have on environmental performance? The research hypothesis of this dissertation establishes that lean distribution of durable and consumable goods can result in an increased amount of carbon dioxide emissions, leading to climate change and natural resource depletion impacts, while lean retailing operations can reduce carbon emissions. Distribution and retailing phases of the life cycle are characterized in a two-echelon supply chain discrete-event simulation modeled after current operations from leading organizations based in the U.S. Southwest. By conducting an overview of critical sustainability issues and their relationship with consumer products, it is possible to address the environmental implications of lean logistics and retailing operations. Provided the waste reduction nature from lean manufacturing, four lean best practices are examined in detail in order to formulate specific research propositions. These propositions are integrated into an experimental design linking annual carbon dioxide equivalent emissions to: (1) shipment frequency between supply chain partners, (2) proximity between decoupling point of products and final customers, (3) inventory turns at the warehousing level, and (4) degree of supplier integration. All propositions are tested through the use of the simulation model. Results confirmed the four research propositions. Furthermore, they suggest synergy between product shipment frequency among supply chain partners and product management due to lean retailing practices. In addition, the study confirms prior research speculations about the potential carbon intensity from transportation operations subject to lean principles.Dissertation/ThesisPh.D. Sustainability 201

Applications of Contemporary Management Approaches in Supply Chains

In today's rapidly changing business environment, strong influence of globalization and information technologies drives practitioners and researchers of modern supply chain management, who are interested in applying different contemporary management paradigms and approaches, to supply chain process. This book intends to provide a guide to researchers, graduate students and practitioners by incorporating every aspect of management paradigms into overall supply chain functions such as procurement, warehousing, manufacturing, transportation and disposal. More specifically, this book aims to present recent approaches and ideas including experiences and applications in the field of supply chains, which may give a reference point and useful information for new research and to those allied, affiliated with and peripheral to the field of supply chains and its management

The responsive reply chain: the influence of the positioning of decoupling points

Manufacturing supply chains have been challenged by high competition, dynamic, and stochastic conditions. They have to be constantly responsive in today’s ever-changing manufacturing environment. The proper positioning of decoupling points for material flow and information flow has a significant potential for increasing responsiveness in a supply chain. Positioning the material decoupling point as close to the end consumer as possible whilst the information decoupling point is positioned upstream is the key to the industries’ ability to reduce lead time and enhance performance in the dynamic behaviour of the supply chain. [Continues.

A Price-sensitive Quantity-flexible Supply Chain Contract Model As A Supply Chain Performance Driver

Tez (Doktora) -- İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, 2006Thesis (PhD) -- İstanbul Technical University, Institute of Science and Technology, 2006Tedarik zinciri bir ürünün tasarım aşamasından tüketicinin eline ulaşıncaya kadar geçireceği ve gerekli olan tüm aşamaları kapsar. Bu çalışmamızda tedarik zinciri sözleşmelerinin bir performans geliştiricisi olarak tedarik zinciri katma değerini en üst düzeye çıkartmada nasıl kullanılabileceği araştırılmış ve iki sözleşme modeli incelenmiştir. İlk sözleşme modeli olarak, ürüne olan talebin satış fiyatı ile bağlantılı olduğu bir ortamda, üreticinin satıcıya belli bir miktarda ürün alma garantisi karşılığı önerdiği indirimler ele alınmıştır. İkinci sözleşme modeli olarak ise, üreticinin toplam tedarik zinciri katma değerini arttırmak için satıcıya önerdiği satılamayan ürünü geri alma ve satın almada miktar esnekliği sağlama sözleşmeleri incelenmiştir. Birinci modelde, görüleceği üzere, her ne kadar talep satış fiyatı ile bağlantılı ise de, sonuç yalnız satıcı açısından değerlendirildiğinden, modelin tedarik zinciri toplam katma değeri üzerindeki etkisi belirsizdir. Diğer yandan, ikinci model tedarik zincirinin toplam katma değerini arttırdığı halde, talebin fiyat duyarlılığı göz önüne alınmamıştır. Çalışmamızda geliştirdiğimiz ve bilgisayar programları kullanarak (Appendix B) çalıştırdığımız modelin özgün yanı, yukarıdaki iki modelin zayıf noktalarına cevap vermesi ve talebin fiyata duyarlı olduğu bir ortamda üretici-satıcı arasında miktar esnekliği sağlayan bir sözleşmenin tedarik zinciri katma değerini en üst düzeye çıkarmasıdır. Çalışmamızda ayrıca sözleşmeden kaynaklanan bu ek katma değer artışının her iki tarafın da kazanması için nasıl paylaştırılabileceğini öneren iki yöntem geliştirilmiştir.A supply chain consists of all stages involved, directly or indirectly, in fulfilling a customer request. In this dissertation, we introduced supply chain contracts as a new driver to maximize supply chain profitability. We presented two supply chain contract models. First, where a retailer facing price sensitive demand may obtain a discount by committing a fixed quantity over a finite horizon, and second where a manufacturer offering buyback or quantity flexibility contracts may increase the total supply chain profit. We concluded that the first model incorporates demand as a function of the selling price but does not address the crucial issue of total supply chain surplus maximization. On the other hand, the second model, although it increases the total supply chain surplus, does not incorporate the demand elasticity. We then developed a model to address the individual weaknesses of the models discussed by incorporating the price sensitive demand into quantity flexibility contracts by determining the optimal level of product availability, as a function of the selling price, which maximizes the total supply chain profit. We also proposed two solutions to the issue of profit sharing related to the distribution of the additional supply chain profit generated by using the contracts. Furthermore, through numerical experiments using computer programs (Appendix B), we showed that our model maximizes total supply chain surplus by incorporating demand elasticity and profit sharing into quantity flexibility contracts.DoktoraPh