Supply complexity management

The third part of the book is devoted to industrial solutions for complex scheduling and supply-chain management problems. Christoph Plapp, Dirk Surholt and Dietmar Syring (Axxom AG) present a tool for the solution of large supply-chain... 

Focusing on the complex area of the market where chemicals are required at short notice and in fairly small quantities, chemical distributors have developed over time into important players in the value chain from producers to consumers in a broad role, serving as supply chain managers offering a wide range of logistics and value-added services. 

If the distributor does not play an important role in terms of value-added and customer access, a direct disintermediation approach may be advisable. Such a strategy is unlikely to lead to complete elimination of the distributor, since chemical producers will not want to build capabilities speciBcaUy for the complex supply chain management of small customers. However, the distributor s role will change more to that of a logistics service provider. The approach of some of the consortia remains to be seen here. 

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. 

The traditional trade-off in supply chain management has been the maintenance of costly buffers of inventory vs. the ability to meet complex customer prerequisites. Reduce safety stocks and costs will be reduced, but customer service may suffer. Due mainly to advanced planning and scheduling systems and improved forecasting applications, production planners now have the opportunity to reduce reliance on safety stock—while stiU meeting customer demand—by trading inventory for information. 

The present work is an important contribution to scientific literature from a methodological and application-oriented point of view. It develops systematically the basic elements for modelling complex chemical production networks and illustrates the benefits of advanced decision support systems in chemical supply chain management. We wish the book continued success and wide acceptance. 

Supply chain management is a complex system with complex processes with increasing complexity. Today, complexity reigns. It is a time of increasing volatility, prodnct personalization, and proliferation of new channels. All of these shifts increase business complexity. 

The consequences for the production processes and the cell design are dramatically. Smaller MEA can be manufactured partly automated on traditional devices from competent specialists in shop floors. A membrane with 1 m needs appropriately big production machines, which do not exist today. The so called flow field of the BIP, which is crucial for the gas and water supply and management, will be multiple complex. Underserved areas of the MEA would lead to blind areas which then influence the efficiency of the entire electrolysis system and the total lifetime negatively. 

Wanke et al. (2010) argue that the perception of logistics systems being complex is confirmed by several authors, but it is not always clear what does it mean. They defined complexity in logistics in terms of quantifiable scales and based on the notion of numerous actors or parts that are interconnected and can be captured by measures such as the company s gross revenue, its number of supphers, active customers, number of employees, number of employees involved in supply chain management, active stock keeping tmits (SKUs), number of distribution centers, orders processed and new product launches per year. 

They proposed that logistics complexity is a driver to define the way a company manages and emphasizes the different supply chain objectives and decision areas, and based on this, a contingency approach for supply chain management is required, where different contextual conditions drive the way the supply chain choices are made and management activities are performed, as opposed to a best practice approach where there would be some universally applicable principles that would be appropriate regardless of the particular conditions under study. 

As firms position themselves to stay competitive, they face the challenge of transforming their operations from a static to a dynamic business environment. An obvious choice for transformation is supply chain operations because of their potential impact on almost every aspect of the business encompassing the extended enterprise. This is a complex undertaking because supply chain management entails managing the following under the umbrella of a common framework ... 

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