Jalal Ashayeri

Realities of Supply Chain Collaboration

Successful supply chain collaboration (SCC) practices are rather exceptional, yet collaboration is believed to be the single most pressing need in supply chain management.In this paper we discuss the realities of SCC, present prerequisites for the collaboration process, indicate where the process starts and where it may terminate.During the discussion we make use of the concepts of Theory of Constraints (TOC) and approach SCC as an ongoing effort dealing with the supply chain constraints.The roles of the entities in this ongoing effort are not always clear.Often SCC is proclaimed to be a joint decision-making process.However, keeping in mind the powerhouses in the chain, we believe that other structures are possible as well.We emphasize the need for: 1) having an adequate supply chain strategy and well-articulated goals, which form the basis for: 2) leading supply chain change, and: 3) governing the continual process of strategy alignment and supply chain change, which is itself a dynamic process.These three tasks are featured by many interactions and characterize the continuous improvement of a SCC process.A step-by-step approach like this enables the involved chain entities to climb the ladder of collaboration and take the supply chain performance to a higher level.

A production model and maintenance planning model for the process industry

In this paper a mixed-integer linear programming model is developed to simultaneously plan preventive maintenance and production in a process industry environment, where maintenance planning is extremely important. The model schedules production jobs and preventive maintenance jobs, while minimizing costs associated with production, backorders, corrective maintenance and preventive maintenance. The model takes into account the probability of a breakdown given the last maintenance period. The formulation of the model is flexible, so that it can be adapted to several production situations. The performance of the model is discussed and a branching solution procedure is suggested.

Global business process re‐engineering: a system dynamics‐based approach

This paper presents a structured approach for business process re‐engineering (BPR) in a large (global) corporation. The paper defines BPR, explores the principles and assumptions behind re‐engineering, and looks for common factors behind its successes or failures. In order to overcome the potential failures, we propose to view a global business as a system and use the system dynamics methodology in conjunction with analytic network process. This approach will enable corporations to understand the relationships among the components of a global business and link different sub‐systems properly when a re‐engineering process is taking place. The purpose of this approach is to increase the effectiveness of the re‐engineering process.

Supply chain partners and configuration selection

The concept of a supply chain exists for over twenty years but partners and configuration selection process still is rather unstructured. In order to increase value in any supply chain, a more comprehensive and integrative approach is required to select the right partners and establish the right configuration along the chain. Under economic growth, wrong decisions does not jeopardize profitability dramatically. However, recent economy downtrends has made the choice of suitable partners in the dynamic supply chain a key strategic concern. The nature of these decisions usually is complex and unstructured. This paper aims to present an intuitionistic fuzzy Choquet integral operator based approach to partners and configuration selection. In order to bring structure in the evaluation process, the supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model developed by Supply Research Council is employed. The paper discusses the development of the value chain concept from partners selection perspective, outlines general similarities and differences of the value chain and the SCOR, and uses a simple V-form supply chain example to establish the proposed approach. Finally, results of the application and sensitivity of the results to the change in the selection criteria weights are discussed.

Inventory management of repairable service parts for personal computers : A case study

Recent years have seen an increase of interest in the field of service parts inventory - particularly in computer industry. The computer industry is a highly competitive industry; products have to be repaired as quickly as possible, since slow repair can lead to loss of future business to competitors with better service reputations. A good reputation is therefore closely linked to the availability of spare parts on the market. Given this fact and using a real-life case study, this paper first elaborates on the management and control of service-parts inventory and presents a brief overview of the contemporary literature on the subject. Next the paper presents the solution approach adopted and the results of study, which indicate that significant savings can be realized through good management of service-parts inventory.

Central distribution in Europe : A multi-criteria approach to location selection

This paper describes a conceptual framework for developing new distribution structures. In real life decision‐making, optimal regions to locate a distribution center take into account both quantitative and qualitative factors. An adjusted kuehn‐Hamburger model is suggested to minimize transport and location costs and a Grid model is used as an alternative approach in case of missing data. The outcome is refined on quantitative and qualitative criteria by application of the Electre method. This framework is applied to a major telecom companys European distribution.

Blending modelling in a process manufacturing: A case study

Abstract This paper describes the application of mixed integer programming to a blending problem in a process industry. The application is designed for the personal computer and is in use in France by a producer of chemical fertilizers. The paper first briefs the literature on blending problems. It covers then the formulation of the blending problem of the plant, its solution and the successful implementation. Special consideration is given to the problem of handling the nonlinearity introduced by constraints of the process manufacturing system. Further consideration is given to the use of opportunity cost in the model.

Strategic and tactical mathematical programming models within the crude oil supply chain context : A review

Abstract In todays business world, oil companies cannot be productive and competitive, and thus, will not survive without taking the supply chain management concepts into account. Consequently, the management of a crude oil supply chain (COSC) is increasingly receiving substantial importance. The growing number of papers and books on this topic is a further witness of this fact. To foster insight into issues intertwined with COSC problems, this paper is devoted to an extensive review of mathematical programming models in this context. The classification approach for this review is based on a taxonomy framework. In this framework, ongoing and emerging challenges surrounding the strategic and tactical decisions of COSC problems are investigated. As a main goal, the gaps of literature are analyzed to recommend possible research directions.

An application of a unified capacity planning system

Purpose – This paper aims to present a unified approach for effective capacity management, with the flexibility to position the organization across differing market‐orientations, anywhere from produce‐to‐stock to purchase‐and‐produce‐to‐order.Design/methodology/approach – The unified planning system combines capacity management with the external market through the customer order decoupling point (CODP). The approach starts by determining the CODP, using commonality and effect‐cause‐effect analysis. The resulting CODP information is then used to determine the optimal master production schedule (medium‐term), as well as the detailed schedule (short‐term) at the bottleneck resource, using mathematical programming; to support decisions across different planning horizons in an integrated fashion.Findings – This unified approach was applied to an electronics manufacturing company in the Netherlands. The unified capacity planning system not only reduces the number of capacity problems to be solved by production ...

A simulation model of a coordinated decentralized supply chain

This paper presents a simulation-based study of a coordinated, decentralized linear supply chain (SC) system. In the proposed model, any supply tier considers its successors as part of its inventory system and generates replenishment orders on the basis of its partners’ operational information. We show that the proposed coordinated decision-making process creates a reduction in information distortion along an SC compared with a traditional, noncoordinated strategy. A novel result is that we show how a coordinated SC can avoid the detrimental consequences of demand amplification in terms of penalty costs due to the stockout phenomenon in upstream stages.