The causes and determination of safety stocks in upstream supply chains for mass production of customized products

In an upstream supply chain dedicated to the mass production of customized products, many sources create production instability: the level and structure of production in the final assembly line, variability of lead times, quality issues, packaging and loading constraints on transportation, demand anticipation, and the synchronization of the flows of components sent, received, and produced. For periodic replenishment systems, each member of the supply chain must have two different safety stocks to prevent some sources of fluctuations: a safety stock of produced components to meet the demand of downstream links and a safety stock of supplied components to ensure its own production. Procedures must take the organizational framework of information and products exchanges into account. The relevance of supply and production rules depends on the relevance of structural information broadcast along the supply chain

Information to share in supply chains dedicated to the mass production of customized products for decentralized management

In an upstream supply chain dedicated to the mass production of customized products, decentralized management can be an efficient and effective method in a steady state in which stochastic characteristics of customers' demands remain stable. However, this is possible only if all echelons that precede the final assembly line use periodic replenishment policies that restrain the stockout risk to a low predetermined probability. The safety stocks' levels are more difficult to define for alternative or optional parts, as well as the components they use, whose demands are weighted sums of random variables, affected by several random factors and organizational constraints. The factors and constraints to consider are not the same for supplied and produced components. The random demand of a component depends on the demand of alternative or optional parts mounted in the final product, through a double transformation involving the bill of materials explosion, which is at the origin of the weighted sum of random variables, and time lags. In the steady state, the knowledge of the probability distribution of that random variable allows for the determination of safety stocks that decouple the management of upstream supply chains. Progressive changes in the steady state require periodic and progressive adaptations of the safety stocks that do not directly depend on the final demand knowledge

The information to share in upstream supply chains dedicated to mass production of customized products for allowing a decentralized management

In an upstream supply chain (USC) dedicated to the mass production of customized products, decentralized management is possible and performing in the steady state, if all the links that precede the final assembly line use periodic replenishment policies. These policies require appropriate safety stocks of alternative or optional components. To achieve such performance in the real world, the supply chain must identify the source of any changes. Unexpected fluctuations in the production of USC plants suggest a bullwhip effect, yet most studies of the bullwhip effect fail to consider build-to-order supply chains. A double transformation of available information, derived from bill of materials explosions and time lags, is required to restore steady-state performance. It then remains to detect and quantify changes and, if a build-to-order strategy of alternative components is possible, use decision rules that are robust to such changes

The Value of Information Sharing in a Build-to-Order Supply Chain

International audienc

The Value of Information Sharing in a Build-to-Order Supply Chain

x-hal_journal_id=3659International audienc

The value of Carbon footprint information into supply chain management : the case study of freight transport sourcing

International audienc

Performance implications of sustainable supply chain in food industry: An empirical study

International audienc

The Value of Information Sharing in a Build-to-Order Supply Chain

International audienc

The Value of Information Sharing in a Build-to-Order Supply Chain

x-hal_journal_id=3659International audienc

Production à flux tirés dans une chaîne logistique

x-hal_journal_id=20800International audienc