Supply chain management examples

In addition to their use as stand-alone systems, LPs are often included within larger systems intended for decision support. In this role, the LP solver is usually hidden from the user, who sees only a set of critical problem input parameters and a set of suitably formatted solution reports. Many such systems are available for supply chain management—for example, planning raw material acquisitions and deliveries, production and inventories, and product distribution. In fact, the process industries—oil, chemicals, pharmaceuticals—have been among the earliest users. Almost every refinery in the developed world plans production using linear programming. 

Non-conflicting and unambiguous accountabilities are key to success. Supply chain managers are often held responsible for inventory levels but are unable to influence production lot sizes, which are normally under the control of the production managers responsible for production costs. As lot size adversely affects inventory levels and production costs, this is a common example of conflicting and ambiguous accountabilities, where responsibilities are not backed up by con-... 

A traditional business s first encounter with e-commerce may well be as a supplier to one of the increasingly common Internet Web stores. Supply chain management is in fact a key, if not a critical, factor in the success of an Internet retailer. The number of products offered in a Web store depends not on available shelf space but on the retailer s ability to manage a complex sets of procurement, inventory, and sales functions. Amazon.com and eToys (http //www.etoys.com), for example, offer 10 times as many products as a typical neighborhood bookstore or toy shop would stock. The key application that enables these EC enterprises is an integrated supply chain. 

Nonmember process links. Managers understand that their supply chains are influenced by decisions made in other connected supply chains. For example, a supplier to the focal company is also a supplier to the chief competitor. Such a supply chain structure may have implications for the... 

In a postscript (Chapter 15), taking the supply chain management to the consumer level is discussed with some personal examples. It is essential to remember that each of us are both customer and supplier. In either circumstance we want to be treated well and so we shoitld return the same behavior. 

Linear programming became the basis for mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) which nowadays involves several branches of chemical engineering (Biegler and Grossmann, 2004). One example is supply chain management process control... 

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