Preventing failure in IT-enabled systems for supply chain management

Supply chain management (SCM) emphasises the overall and long-term benefit of all parties on the chain through cooperation and information sharing. This signifies the importance of communication and the application of IT-enabled systems in SCM. A supply chain management information system (SCMIS) is usually user-interfaced and designed to provide information and information processing capability to support the strategy, operations, management analysis, and decision-making functions in an organisation's supply network. SCMIS provides high quality, relevant and timely information flow that effectively supports decision-making for inventory replenishment, capacity activation, and for synchronising material flows at all tiers within the supply chain. In recent years, there have been some efforts on designing efficient information systems for supply chain management; but many of them have led to failure. Using a critical failure factor (CFF) approach and based on a perfect study, we investigate this crucial issue in-depth and put forward feasible solutions regarding failure prevention in such systems throughout this article. Three main purposes of this paper are to: (1) identify SCMIS and its characteristics, (2) introduce and categorise the critical failure factors of SCM and SCMIS, and (3) investigate the explanatory power of these CFFs on the performance of supply channel processes performed through SCMIS.     

A coordination theoretic model for three level supply chains using contracts

Typically, supply chain members are dependent on each other to manage various resources and information. The conflicting objectives and lack of coordination between supply chain members may often cause uncertainties in supply and demand. The basic elements of coordination theory like interdependency, coherency and mutuality may help in effective flow of information and material between the dependent supply chain members. Supply chain contract can be an effective coordination mechanism to motivate all the members to be a part of the entire supply chain. There are different types of supply chain contracts such as buy back and quantity flexibility contracts. Supply chain performance may be substantially improved by properly designing the contracts to share risks and rewards. The objective of this paper is to explore the applicability of coordination elements through an analytical model in three-level (Manufacturer-distributor-retailer) serial supply chains using contracts. The model evaluates the impact of supply chain contracts on various performance measures. The impact of some contract may be on some specific performance measure only, which helps managers to choose the type of contract if there is an objective of improving certain performance measure before hand. In three-level supply chains, the contracts are designed at two distinct interfaces: Manufacturer-distributor and distributor-retailer. The model demonstrates the complexity in evaluating the decision variables of three level supply chains. The proposed model is a novel approach to apply coordination theory at various levels of supply chain. The model also presents how the coordination elements are related to each other in various coordination cases.     

Global supply chain management: A reinforcement learning approach

In recent years, researchers and practitioners alike have devoted a great deal of attention to supply chain management (SCM). The main focus of SCM is the need to integrate operations along the supply chain as part of an overall logistic support function. At the same time, the need for globalization requires that the solution of SCM problems be performed in an international context as part of what we refer to as Global Supply Chain Management (GSCM). This paper proposes an approach to study GSCM problems using an artificial intelligence framework called reinforcement learning (RL). The RL framework allows the management of global supply chains under an integration perspective. The RL approach has remarkable similarities to that of an autonomous agent network (AAN); a similarity that we shall discuss. The RL approach is applied to a case example, namely a networked production system that spans several geographic areas and logistics stages. We discuss the results and provide guidelines and implications for practical applications.     

Decentralized supply chain coordination through auction markets: dynamic lot-sizing in distribution networks

As supply chains become bigger and dynamically structured involving multiple organizations with different interests, it is impossible for a single organization to control a whole supply chain. So, decentralization of decision rights is an inevitable facet of managing modern supply chains. However, controlling in a decentralized mode can fail without appropriate coordination mechanisms. When the agents of a supply chain are not willing to cooperate in terms of information sharing, the whole supply chain can exhibit expensive inefficiencies such as the bullwhip effect. In this paper, we design a trustworthy decentralized coordination mechanism for dynamic lot-sizing in distribution networks, as an effort to motivate information sharing. We design multiple auctions and each auction coordinates the plans of a supplier and its customers by trading the right of managing the supplier's inventory plan. The coordination mechanism makes a reasonable profit and the profit is divided in an agreeable way. Also, the profits are actual because of the capability of supporting a truth-telling environment. Therefore, the designed coordination mechanism is trustworthy in that it guarantees the right benefits to all the agents in return for information sharing.     

The value of updated information on future price behaviour

This paper studies the value of information on future price behaviour. We consider a one-period inventory modelling framework with random period length and two order opportunities. The selling price is determined dynamically and the demand is price-sensitive. The second ordering-pricing decision reflects the updated information on future price behaviour on supply chain flexibility. We consider three models with different levels of flexibility: the static model, the quantity flexible model and the combined quantity and timing (fully) flexible model. We compare between the values of three different features in the supply chain: updated information on price behaviour, dynamic pricing and supply flexibility. And we demonstrate the effect of holding cost and demand uncertainty on these three values. We also consider a specific condition with fixed selling prices. We give explicit analysis on the optimal order decisions, and analytically show the impact of information and quantity flexibility on the optimal order decisions.     

A strategic decision framework for a value added supply chain

Supply chains are becoming increasingly complex. The structure of the supply chain and the suppliers who participate in it are critical decisions for managers. The supply chain is no longer simply a source of inputs or services but an integral source of value added. It is clear that in some cases strategic supply chain objectives may require trade-offs, for example, between cost and innovation capability or between managing risk and maximising flexibility. These decisions balancing trade-offs between desirable partner characteristics are critical and can make a significant contribution to business performance. A framework is outlined, based on the foundation of extant literature, within which firms can make strategic decisions on supply chain structure by categorising the characteristics they prioritise in their supply chain strategy. There is also a strong foundation in the literature on developing mathematical models that provide insight into the decision-making process. A mixed integer programming model is specified that incorporates the opportunity for diversification and provides a demand allocation decision. The model is robust enough to allow for single or diversified supplier strategies based not only on capacity constraints but also on risk pooling and minimum performance requirements for key characteristics that form the basis of the strategy. A Lagrangian relaxation is proposed and satisfactory performance results are provided.     

Petri-net based applications for supply chain management: an overview

Supply networks are discrete event dynamic systems consisting of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and customers. It is a difficult and challenging task to model such a complex system. Recently, characterised as being capable of model parallelism and synchronisation, Petri nets (PNs) have attracted great attention for modelling and studying a supply network. Since each type of Petri net has its unique properties to model specific applications, this paper reviews and classifies Petri net applications for supply chain management (SCM). According to the decision problems facing SCM, we have the Petri net applications classified into three areas: competitive strategy, firm focused tactics, and operational efficiency. Categorising the Petri net applications will provide a guideline to industry practitioners and research academics to choose the appropriate Petri net for the problem. In addition, the paper attempts to offer future directions in applying the Petri net to SCM including: (1) modelling with uncertainty elements; (2) addressing the scalability issue of Petri nets; (3) integrating Petri nets with other tools; and (4) extending Petri nets to emerging applications.     

Simulation modelling for food supply chain redesign; integrated decision making on product quality,sustainability and logistics

Food supply chains are confronted with increased consumer demands on food quality and sustainability. When redesigning these chains the analysis of food quality change and environmental load of new scenarios is as important as the analysis of efficiency and responsiveness requirements. Simulation tools are often used for supporting decision-making on supply chain (re)design when logistic uncertainties are in place, building on their inherent modelling flexibility. Mostly, the underlying assumption is that product quality is not influenced by or does not influence chain design. Clearly, this is not true for food supply chains, as quality change is intrinsic to the industry. We propose a new integrated approach towards logistics, sustainability and food quality analysis, and implement the approach by introducing a new simulation environment, ALADIN?. It embeds food quality change models and sustainability indicators in discrete event simulation models. A case example illustrates the benefits of its use relating to speed and quality of integrated decision making, but also to creativity in terms of alternative solutions.     

A survey of semiconductor supply chain models Part II: demand planning,inventory management,and capacity planning

Part I of this three-part series described semiconductor supply chains from the decision-making and functional perspectives, using this as a framework to review the industrial engineering and operations research literature on the problems arising in these supply chains. Part I then reviewed the literature on Strategic Network Design, supply chain coordination, sustainability and simulation-based decision support. This paper, Part II, reviews the areas of Demand Planning, Inventory Management and Capacity Planning in semiconductor supply chains. Part III concludes the series by discussing models to support Master Planning, Production Planning and Demand Fulfilment in this industry.     

Effect of information sharing in supply chains with flexibility

Coordination plays a pivotal role in successful design and implementation of supply chains, especially for those that are formed by independent and autonomous companies. More specifically, information sharing has widely been regarded as an essential tool to coordinate supply chains activities in order to overcome supply chains dynamics. A major contribution of this paper is to analyse the effects of negotiation-based information sharing in a distributed make-to-order manufacturing supply chain in a multi-period, multi-product types environment, which is modelled as a multi-agent system. Information can only be exchanged through negotiation in the agent-based framework with delivery quantity and due date flexibility, which is significantly different from the past reported literature that shared information is available anytime. Four schemes, namely, stochastic model (STO), flexibility in delivery quantity and due date without information sharing (FLEX_NI), flexibility in delivery quantity and due date with partial information sharing (FLEX_PI), and flexibility in delivery quantity and due date with full information sharing (FLEX_FI), are considered. Simulation results indicate that FLEX_PI in the system has comparable performance in terms of total cost and fill rate against FLEX_FI, while both systems outperform STO and FLEX_NI. Considering the associated costs and limitations to achieve full information sharing, partial information sharing may be more practical in real-life applications. Nevertheless, the proposed agent-based framework with delivery quantity and due date flexibility but without information sharing (i.e. FLEX_NI) is not that worse as compared with the two schemes of information sharing (FLEX_PI and FLEX_FI). Therefore, by taking the difficulties of implementing information sharing into account, flexibility in delivery quantity and due date that could be introduced may be a more feasible solution.     

Sustainable supply chain flexibility and its relationship to circular economy-target performance

The circular economy (CE) is an evolving economic and sustainable development model. In this new environment, companies face a more dynamic, uncertain, and complex market environment. These challenges arise from material closed-loop flows necessary for a functioning CE. It is important to build flexibility capabilities into sustainable supply chains to address CE operational challenges. Building this operational capability needs to occur without incurring performance degradation, increasing costs, or compromising product quality. Supply chain designers have recognised the importance of sustainable supply chain flexibility (SSCF) efforts for meeting CE-targeted performance. CE-targeted performance includes reuse of materials and energy, closed flow of materials, and pollution reduction. Exploration of relationships between SSCF efforts and CE-targeted performance is limited. An objective-DEMATEL method is used to evaluate the relationship between a new SSCF measures framework and CE-targeted performance. A field study helps to identify and refine significant SSCF measures (efforts) to effectively improve CE-targeted performance. Managerial implications and future research directions for sustainable supply chain flexibility within the CE environment are presented.     

A systematic review of China’s belt and road initiative: implications for global supply chain management

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is one of the world’s largest infrastructure projects, with its potential political and economic impact being widely discussed since its inception in 2013. Yet the phenomenon has received only limited attention in the Supply Chain Management (SCM) literature. In response, we first conduct a broad systematic review of the literature to assess how China’s BRI is portrayed. Using this as a backdrop, we then distil the likely impact of the BRI on location decisions and supply chain flows. Finally, in a broader discussion of the SCM literature, we explore the implications of the BRI for future research in four key areas: supply chain configuration, supply chain resilience, sustainable SCM, and cross border SCM. While these areas are not new, the BRI presents a unique context that can be used to enhance theory and understanding in each area. The BRI reduces time distance independent of geographical distance by diverting supply chain flows from established routes to new routes via far less accessible regions. This introduces new risks and sustainability issues that call for multi-criteria decision support systems. Another important issue is the adoption and diffusion of the BRI since this will ultimately determine project success.     

Aligning business process reengineering in implementing global supply chain systems by the SCOR model

As supply chains continue to replace individual companies as the management arena for value-adding from the beginning of the twenty first century, understanding the supply chain management practices in a globalisation context becomes increasingly important. The Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) Model, which was developed by the experts and practitioners of the Supply Chain Council, is a major framework for supply chain planning that features supply chain management practices and business process reengineering. Despite being an integrative guide with many merits, it only provides a ‘top-down’ approach that requires the comparative analyses of post- and pro-performance indices as a basis of business process modification. This study discusses the limitations of current SCOR analysis and provides a mapping technique—Causes/Effects, the SCOR Standard, and Mutual Solution (CESM)—for gap mapping, problem prioritisation, and business process modification in a supply chain setting. As such, it is one of the early empirical studies combining BPR and SCM disciplines. The research results can facilitate the implementation processes of multinational supply chain projects by identifying the gaps and linking them to the channel entities.     

供应链管理在包装制造业的应用研究

供应链管理思想在制造工业中的应用取得了一定的成就,同样对于包装制造业存在着重要作用,它也面临提高生产力和降低成本的压力.但包装制造业有其自身的特征,并且有关理论还不完善.本文认为供应链中的合作伙伴关系、全面质量管理、基准法和精益思想的实施是包装制造业供应链管理发展的必然趋势.     

Inventory performance of some supply chain inventory policies under impulse demands

This paper attempts to study the impact of impulsive demand disturbances on the inventory-based performance of some inventory control policies. The supply chain is modelled as a network of autonomous supply chain nodes. The customer places a constant demand except for a brief period of sudden and steep change in demand (called demand impulse). Under this setting, the behaviour of each inventory policy is analysed for inventory performance of each node. It is found that the independent decision-making by each node leads to a bullwhip effect in the supply chain whereby demand information is amplified and distorted. However, under a scenario where the retailer places a constant order irrespective of the end customer demand, the inventory variance was actually found to decrease along the supply chain. The variance of the inventory remained constant along the chain when only the actual demands are transmitted by each node. The results also showed that the inventory policy which is best for one supply chain node is generally less efficient from a supply chain perspective. Moreover, the policy which performs poorly for one node can be most efficient for the supply chain. In a way, our results also provide a case for coordinated inventory management in the supply chain where all members prepare a joint inventory management policy that is beneficial for all the supply chain nodes. The results have significant industrial implications.     

A decision-making model for Lean,Agile, Resilient and Green supply chain management

In modern business environments, an effective supply chain management (SCM) is crucial to business continuity. Competition between supply chains (SC) has replaced the traditional competition between companies. Lean, Agile, Resilient and Green (LARG) paradigms are advocated as the foundation of a competitive SCM. To make a supply chain more competitive, capable of responding to the demands of customers with agility and capable of responding effectively to unexpected disturbance, in conjugation with environmental responsibilities and the necessity to eliminate processes that add no value, companies must implement a set of LARG SCM practices and key performance indicators (KPI) to measure their influence on the SC performance. However, the selection of the best LARG SCM practices and KPIs is a complex problem, involving dependencies and feedbacks. This paper proposes an integrated LARG analytic network process (ANP) model to support decision-making in choosing the most appropriate practices and KPIs to be implemented by companies in an SC. To validate the model in an exploratory approach, a case study in an automaker supply chain is presented.     

Dynamic supply chain design: a Delphi study of drivers and barriers

Supply chain management has both in academia and practice proven its important role to sustain and further develop companies’ competitive advantages. This is with initiatives that focus on cost-efficiencies and turnover improvement. During the last two decades, companies have faced complexity in their supply chains currently with increased global operations. The dynamic business environment forces companies to secure a competitive (re-) design of their supply chains. This paper seeks to advance the understanding on the drivers and barriers for such designs. In total, 39 experts (30 from industrial enterprises, 4 senior supply chain consultants and 5 supply chain management professors) have participated in a four-step Delphi study and have identified main drivers for dynamic supply chain design as being cost reduction, delivery reliability and change in demand for agility. The main barriers are identified as forecasting being too weak, supply chain complexity and product portfolio complexity. In addition, an explorative factor analysis has been carried out to identify how drivers and barriers can be grouped together. Finally, the paper compares the drivers and barriers underlining different competitive strategies.     

A survey of semiconductor supply chain models part I: semiconductor supply chains,strategic network design,and supply chain simulation

Supply chain management issues have become increasingly important to the semiconductor industry over the last two decades due to the global distribution of facilities and increasing numbers of firms specialising in particular stages. This series of three papers reviews the literature on modelling and analysis of the larger semiconductor supply chain. After describing the structure of semiconductor supply chains to provide context for the research efforts, we propose a classification scheme for the relevant literature. The remainder of this paper (Part I) then focuses on Strategic Network Design models for this industry, supply chain coordination through contracting and semiconductor supply chain simulation. Part II discusses Demand Planning, Inventory Management and Capacity Planning, while Part III addresses Master Planning, Production Planning and Demand Fulfilment.     

供应链管理中的信息集成

供应链管理是“横向一体化”管理思想的典型代表。在分析供应链和供应链管理出现的背景的基础上，讨论了信息技术在集成化供应链管理中的应用，并提出了基于Internet/Intranet的供应链管理信息系统的技术支撑体系。     

供需链管理的运作模式研究

信息技术的发展使动态供需链的实现成为可能,在前者的支持下,供需链管理的模式可以按照运作中心的不同分为以分销商为核心的供需链、以制造商为核心的供需链和以拍卖商为核心的供需链三种模式,分析了在三种模式下的供需链的流程,并针对供需链不同的生命周期分析了供需链的功能,最后对供需链管理信息系统的实现进行了讨论。