Adaptive supply chains

Busalacchi, F. A. (1999), The Collaborative, High Speed, Adaptive, Supply-Chain Model for Lightweight Procurement, in Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Production Research (Limerick, Ireland), pp. 585-588. 

Information Systems to Track, Report, and Adapt Supply Chains... 

Fourth Shift in the Supply Chain Process Building the Adaptive Supply Chain. Becoming Demand Driven... 

Visibility is focused on resources and, in particular, inventories (inventory visibility). This means that resources are visible in the supply chain and can be noticed from any link, thus making it possible to monitor the inventory level in the entire supply chain. Velocity means the capacity to meet needs (fulfilment velocity) or fulfil a contract in a short time. Versatility consists in the capacity to collaborate with suppliers and purchasers when faced with various terms of delivery (coordination versatility). These are the three pillars of adaptive supply chains. According to Ivanov, Sokolov and Kaeschel (2010, p. 411), a supply chain may be called adaptive if it can adapt to ... 

Ivanov D., Sokolov B., Kaeschel J., 2010, A Multi-Stmctural Framework for Adaptive Supply Chain Planning and Operations Control with Structure... 

An important facilitator of adaptive supply chain management is the facility to access additional capacity when required. Capacity here refers not only to manufacturing but also in transport and warehousing. Furthermore, that capacity may not be owned by the firm in question, it could come from partners across the network, third-party providers or even competitors. 

Curran T, Keller G (1998) SAP R/3 Business Blueprint understanding the business process reference model, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River Datta S, Betts B, Dinning M, Erhun F, Gibbs T, Keskinocak P, Li H, Li M, Samuels M (2004) Adaptive Value Networks, In Chang YS, Makatsoris H, Richards H (eds) Evolution of Supply Chain Management. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell, MA, pp 3-68... 

Figure 5.2 General structure of an international fragrance company around the supply chain (adapted from Curtis and Williams, 1995)...

Figure 2 Supply Management Benefits. (Adapted from The Executive s Guide to Supply Chain Management Strategies, Copyright 1998 David Riggs and Sharon Robbins. Used with permission of the publisher, AMACOM, a division of American Management Association International, New York, NY. AU rights reserved, http //www.amacombooks.com)...

Now consider an inventory/distribution network, also known as a supply chain. Each node in the network represents a stocking location. Suppose a base-stock control policy is followed at each node. With the discussion above, we can adapt the standard decomposition approach in analyzing queueing networks to study this inventory network. 

This material is adapted from D. M. Lambert, L. C. Guinipero, and G. Ridenhower, Supply Chain Management A Key to Achieving Business Excellence in the 21st Century, manuscript. All rights reserved. 

They reveal that facility location problems mostly include inventory and production decisions as well while routing, transportation mode selection, and procurement integrated location decision problems receive less attention in the literature. Facility location decisions are strategic in supply chain design since a company supply chain will need to adapt to changing market needs migrating to new locations for example. They also state that most of the facility location studies consider minimization of costs as the objective. 

Each supply chain has its own characteristics, mainly conditioned by the type of product which is offered to the final consumer and by the maiket conditions in which it moves, and that unquestionably complicates the analysis of valid methodologies for reducing the BuUwhip Effect. However, it is possible to find some common problems to all of them, and several authors have proposed general strategies to be adapted to each particular supply chain. These traditional solutions to BuUwhip Effect are mainly based on collaboration among the various members of the supply chain, often sharing some information. 

Consider supply chains that face significant short-term changes events that require rapid adjustment and adaptation of flows. In a book titled Orchestrating Supply Chain Opportunities, Iyer and Zelikovsky [63] focus on the information system as one tool to manage events that include weather-related disruptions (like Hurricane Katrina), product failures that require rapid redesign (Uke the Kryptonite bicycle lock), demand surges (such as those faced by Amazon.com), among others. 

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