Furniture supply chain tactical planning optimization using a time decomposition approach

We study the supply chain tactical planning problem of an integrated furniture company located in the Province of Québec, Canada. The paper presents a mathematical model for tactical planning of a subset of the supply chain. The decisions concern procurement, inventory, outsourcing and demand allocation policies. The goal is to define manufacturing and logistics policies that will allow the furniture company to have a competitive level of service at minimum cost. We consider planning horizon of 1 year and the time periods are based on weeks. We assume that customer's demand is known and dynamic over the planning horizon. Supply chain planning is formulated as a large mixed integer programming model. We developed a heuristic using a time decomposition approach in order to obtain good solutions within reasonable time limit for large size problems. Computational results of the heuristic are reported. We also present the quantitative and qualitative results of the application of the mathematical model to a real industrial case.

Collaborative Tactical Planning in Multi-level Supply Chains Supported by Multiagent Systems

International audienceIn the supply chain modeling context, the agent-based model aims to represent not only each node, but also the information sharing process among these nodes. Despite the complexity of the configuration, the agent-based model can be applied straightforwardly to support the collaborative planning process. This allows the parties to achieve common goals effectively. Thus by sharing accurate, action-based information, collaboration among the nodes will emerge to improve the decision-making process in supply chain planning processes. Therefore, this paper presents a novel collaborative planning model in multi-level supply chains that considers a multiagent system modeling approach to carry out the iterative negotiation processes which will support the decision-making process from a decentralized perspective