Supply chain configuration definition

Definition of this supply chain configuration dimension includes specifying the number of tiers in the supply chain, defining general types of units in each tier, and identifying specific constraints for the tier as a whole (for instance, the number of suppliers required). 

Following the definition of the main supply chain configuration problem areas given above, the main requirements to be met to achieve reconfigurability are divided into two groups ... 

The requirements defined above must be met for all supply chain management problems included in the supply chain configuration scope definition (see Chap. 2). The problem space is reduced by focusing mainly on the decision-making aspect of supply chain configuration, as defined in Sect. 4.2. 

The conunon knowledge refers to industry standards and generally accepted supply chain management concepts. The common knowledge facilitates established mappings between concept definitions in repositories maintained by individual supply chain units, thus leading to easier establishment of the common repository used by the supply chain configuration system. 

The methodology includes multiple steps common to many modeling methodologies, such as definition of performance measures, data gathering, execution of models, and analysis of results. There are also several issues relatively unique to supply chain environments and supply chain configuration. Many of these issues... 

The purpose of this step is to formalize definition of the supply chain configuration problem and gathering of appropriate data. The main tasks are (1) definition of supply chain configuration goals, relevant concepts and processes (2) data structuring and (3) data gathering from heterogeneous data sources. 

The conceptual modeling step produced the formal descriptive representation of the supply chain configuration problem. In order to proceed with further evaluation, an experimental plan is developed. The purpose of experimental planning is to define procedures for modeling and analysis of the supply chain configuration problem. The tasks of experimental planning are (1) selection of appropriate modeling methods (2) definition of performance measures (3) identification of relevant experimental scenarios and experimental factors and (4) definition of individual experiments to be conducted as well as their properties. 

The modeling and analysis step yields multiple alternative supply chain configurations. The purpose of this step is to select the most appropriate configuration for implementation. The decision-making step includes definition of evaluation criteria, comparison of the alternatives according to these criteria and what-if... 

Referring back to the definition of the supply chain configuration scope (Chap. 2), simulation is particularly well suited to address managerial concerns, such as ... 

Table 13.1 The supply chain configuration scope definition for the ET case...

The following sections describe the main activities performed in the framework of the integrated supply chain configuration methodology. The emphasis is devoted to analysis scope definition, conceptual modeling, and analytical modeling. 

To establish a focused scope definition of the supply chain configuration problem. 

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