Supply chain configuration

Personnel management. Workforce requirements are considered while dealing with the personnel management problem. This includes workforce planning, hiring, layoffs, promotion, training, and incentives. 

Supplier selection and purchasing. This deals with procurement of materials and services that are needed from suppliers to satisfy customer demand. The problem includes such issues as identification of materials and services needed, supplier relationships (i.e., supplier selection, contract negotiation, supplier evaluation) and execution of procurement operations. 

Supply chain configuration is a set of supply chain units and links among these units defining the underlying supply chain stmcture and the key attributes of the supply chain network. 

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Graves SC, Willems SP (2003) Supply Chain Design Safety Stock Placement and Supply Chain Configuration. In de Kok AG, Graves S C (eds) Supply Chain Management Design, Coordination and Operation. Elsevier, Amsterdam et al., pp 95-132... 

Figure 1. The three supply chain configurations (a) the Old, (b) the Current, (c) the Next Generation.

Figure 2. The simulation model of the Current supply chain configuration.

Figure 3. The steps of sequential bifurcation applied to the Old supply chain configuration, assuming a first-order polynomial metamodel. Estimates of the Pf-j defined in equation (6) are indicated at each step.

In the next section, we apply sequential bifurcation to the other two supply chain configurations (the Current and Next generations) and we interpret these sequential bifurcation results through our knowledge of the simulated real system. 

We give only a short description of the three supply chain configurations and their simulation models for details we refer to Persson and Olhager (2002). At the start of our sequential bifurcation, we have three simulation models programmed in the Taylor II simulation software for discrete event simulations see Incontrol (2003). We conduct our sequential bifurcation via Microsoft Excel, using the batch run mode in Taylor II. We store input-output data in Excel worksheets. This set-up facilitates the analysis of the simulation input-output data, but it constrains the setup of the experiment. For instance, we cannot control the pseudorandom numbers in the batch mode of Taylor II. Hence, we cannot apply common pseudorandom numbers nor can we guarantee absence of overlap in the pseudorandom numbers we conjecture that the probability of overlap is negligible in practice. 

The technique of sequential bifurcation is an important and useful method for identifying important factors in experiments with simulation models that involve a large number of factors. We have demonstrated the steps of this technique through a case study on three supply chain configurations in the Swedish mobile communications industry. We have formalized the assumptions of the technique and found that, in practice, these assumptions may not be too restrictive, as our case study illustrates. We have extended the technique of sequential bifurcation to random (as opposed to deterministic) simulations. 

Cohen and Roussel (2005) define strategic supply chain as a process to create a unique supply chain configuration that will drive the company s strategic objectives, and should consider five critical configuration components ... 

Information networks Market centric with little commitment to physical facilities Expertise lies in supply chain configuration, relying on partners for operations expertise... 

Manage supply chain configuration Providing product-related supply chain-related information throughout the product s life cycle Information included could be routings, engineering configuration, sources of components, and after-market requirements... 

Threads is the SCOR term that characterizes a supply chain configuration. Referring to the Level 2 execution steps in Figure 23.3, a thread of three companies might use the following models ... 

Emerson, D. and S. Piramuthu. 2004. Agent - based framework for dynamic supply chain configuration. In Proceedings of the 37th IEEE International Conference on Systems Science, pp. 1-8. Big Island, HI IEEE. 

Piramuthu, S. 2005. Knowledge-based framework for automated dynamic supply chain configuration. European Journal of Operational Research. 165 219-230. 

Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 C. Chandra, J. Grabis, Supply Chain Configuration, DOI 10.1007/978-l-4939-3557-4 l... 

In this chapter, we focus on studying the nature of the supply chain and its configuration in a dynamic business environment. We develop an understanding of the basis for a supply chain configuration problem, its classifications, and its various dimensions. This chapter also introduces a running example of bicycle supplOy chain used throughout the book to illustrate various concepts and methods. 

The supply chain configuration problem solving allows to define scope of the given supply chain system. The scope is defined along multiple dimensions, namely, horizontal extent, vertical extent, objectives and criteria, decisions made, and parameters. 

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