Ant colony optimisation algorithm for distribution-allocation problem in a two-stage supply chain with a fixed transportation charge

In a fixed charge transportation problem, each route is associated with a fixed charge (or a fixed cost) and a transportation cost per unit transported. The presence of the fixed cost makes the problem difficult to solve, thereby requiring the use of heuristic methods. In this paper, an algorithm based on ant colony optimisation is proposed to solve the distribution-allocation problem in a two-stage supply chain with a fixed transportation cost for a route. A numerical study on benchmark problem instances has been carried out. The results obtained for the proposed algorithm have been compared with that for the genetic algorithm-based heuristic currently available in the literature. It is statistically confirmed that the proposed algorithm provides significantly better solutions.     

A review on the buyer–supplier dyad relationships in sustainable procurement context: past,present and future

Sustainable development is currently being applied in most fields of research. Procurement, focused on the buyer–supplier dyad, is one such discipline where sustainability is being widely applied. This paper provides a review of these research studies, conducting a systematic content analysis in order to present the state of the art in this domain. The paper carries out a detailed review of articles in international scientific journals and well-known international conferences related to green and sustainable supplier selection published between 2008 and 2014 inclusive. Seven designed research questions are proposed and answered based on this bibliography. Interesting results are reported in each section and gaps in the current body of literature are identified. The purpose of this review is to provide important future directions and limitations in this research topic.     

Reactive manufacturing control using the ant colony approach

As a reaction to the volatile market demands with regards to the number and variants of products offered, ever more complex procedures for manufacturing control are being developed. Most recently, self-organising procedures, which often mimic the behaviour of natural systems, have arisen. The method of ant colony optimisation (ACO), which was inspired by ants, can provide the necessary fundamentals in order to realise self-organising manufacturing control. In this context, the ifab-Institute has developed the AntControl tool for self-organising manufacturing control based on ACO. In order to investigate the potential of ACO, several concepts have been developed and integrated into the existing OSim simulation tool to create the new OSim-Ant tool. An exemplary simulation study within a manufacturing system has been carried out to evaluate the behaviour of AntControl. This paper presents this tool as well as the results of the simulation study.     

新冠肺炎疫情对全球供应链的影响和政策建议

为了探究新冠肺炎疫情大流行对农产品供应链的冲击,研究人力资源约束和不确定的市场需求条件下的多级农产品供应链的优化配置问题,建立非线性规划模型。以某大型企业农产品小麦及衍生品麦粉供应链为例,利用自适应蚁群算法对模型进行求解,比较优化工具Lingo的求解结果,验证自适应蚁群算法的有效性。最后,分别对不同的外部市场需求和人力资源约束进行敏感性分析,得出一些重要管理学启示。

     

供应链管理的敏捷性研究

面对顾客需求的不确定性及市场的易变性，企业必须站在供应链的高度来应对这种变化，同时供应链的敏捷性也是适应这种环境的必备特征。通过对供应链敏捷性概念、特征及敏捷战略研究，提出了提升供应链敏捷性的若干途径。     

基于代理技术的集成供应链管理系统

分析的传统供应链及其管理系统的存在问题,提出了适于敏捷制造环境的集成供应链管理系统的概念及其特征,基于代理的概念给出了相应的系统体系结构框架,讨论了供应链管理功能的分解及系统的运行机理。     

Supply chain disruption risk management through strategic information acquisition and sharing and risk-sharing contracts

In this paper, we develop a framework that captures the effects of information management and risk-sharing contracts in supply chain networks. In particular, we analyse the impact of strategic information acquisition and sharing on supply chain disruption risks and costs and we evaluate the supply chain performance of risk-sharing contracts. Risk-sharing contracts specify who needs to incur the costs when supply chain disruptions occur. We develop a model that consists of three tiers of multi-criteria decision-makers, manufacturers, retailers, and demand markets. We describe the behaviour or each decision-maker, derive the finite-dimensional variational inequality formulation of the equilibrium conditions of the supply chain and present numerical examples. The numerical examples highlight that it is not a priori clear which participant in the supply chain network will benefit from increased information-sharing activities. Our models indicate that the beneficiary of reduced information-sharing costs is in some cases dependent on the negotiation power of participants and that it is also dependent on the type of risk-sharing contract used. Furthermore, the numerical examples show that, in some cases, information-sharing and risk-sharing contracts are complements while in other cases they are substitutes.     

A fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making approach for managing performance and risk in integrated procurement–production planning

Nowadays in Supply Chain (SC) networks, a high level of risk comes from SC partners. An effective risk management process becomes as a consequence mandatory, especially at the tactical planning level. The aim of this article is to present a risk-oriented integrated procurement–production approach for tactical planning in a multi-echelon SC network involving multiple suppliers, multiple parallel manufacturing plants, multiple subcontractors and several customers. An originality of the work is to combine an analytical model allowing to build feasible scenarios and a multi-criteria approach for assessing these scenarios. The literature has mainly addressed the problem through cost or profit-based optimisation and seldom considers more qualitative yet important criteria linked to risk, like trust in the supplier, flexibility or resilience. Unlike the traditional approaches, we present a method evaluating each possible supply scenario through performance-based and risk-based decision criteria, involving both qualitative and quantitative factors, in order to clearly separate the performance of a scenario and the risk taken if it is adopted. Since the decision-maker often cannot provide crisp values for some critical data, fuzzy sets theory is suggested in order to model vague information based on subjective expertise. Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution is used to determine both the performance and risk measures correlated to each possible tactical plan. The applicability and tractability of the proposed approach is shown on an illustrative example and a sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the influence of criteria weights on the selection of the procurement–production plan.     

An integrated decision support system for strategic supply chain optimisation in process industries: the case of a zinc company

We introduce a menu-driven user-friendly decision support system (DSS) for supply chain planning based on optimisation. The DSS is based on a multi-source (supplier), multi-destination (warehouse) network having multiple manufacturing facilities, with multiple materials and multiple storage areas. This integrated supply chain model performs multiple period planning. The use of this DSS requires little knowledge of management sciences tools. We discuss the need for an integrated approach towards supply chain modelling for the process industry. We present the integrated model in the form of a database structure. We validate the model with the real data of a zinc company and demonstrate the impact of optimisation in terms of percentage improvement. The result shows that it is possible to improve unit contribution to profit from 1.89 to 4.66%.     

网络化敏捷供应链销售管理研究与系统开发

将网络化和敏捷供应链管理的思想应用到企业销售管理中,提出了通过节点企业间及时准确地进行信息交流以快速响应市场需求的网络化敏捷供应链销售管理模式,在此基础上开发了基于B／S结构的敏捷供应链销售管理系统,提高了实施企业销售管理的协调能力和应变能力。     

Ergonomics in assembly line balancing based on energy expenditure: a multi-objective model

In many assembly systems, ergonomics can have great impact on productivity and human safety. Traditional assembly systems optimisation approaches consider only time and cost variables, while few studies include also ergonomics aspects. In this study, a new multi-objective model for solving assembly line balancing problem is developed and discussed in order to include also the ergonomics aspect. First, based on main features of assembly workstations, the energy expenditure concept is used in order to estimate the ergonomics level, thanks to a new technique, called Predetermined Motion Energy System, which helps rapidly estimate the energy expenditure values. Then, a multi-objective approach, based on four different objective functions, is introduced in order to define the efficient frontiers of optimal solutions. To complete the study, a simple numerical example for a real case is presented to analyse the behaviour of Pareto frontiers varying several parameters linked to the energy and time value.     

Industrial robot layout based on operation sequence optimisation

The robot layout is one of the primary problems in the robot work cell design. An optimal layout not only makes the robotic end-effector reach the desired position with the desired orientation, but also minimises the robot cycle time for completing a given task with collision avoidance. There may be many feasible robot operation sequences for a given task. The optimisation of operation sequence for a robot placed in a fixed location is NP-complete. There may be different optimal operation sequences as the robot is placed in the different locations. Hence the problem of robot layout is quite complex. This paper presents a method of industrial robot layout based on operation sequence optimisation. The robot motion control model with velocity, acceleration and jerk is established. The feasible space of robot base is calculated and then divided into discrete grids before the optimisations. Then the ant colony algorithm is applied to optimise the operation sequence for each grid. The adjacent grids are merged or divided enough times to form the bigger grids. The pattern search algorithm is adopted to solve the local optimal position and orientation of the robot base in each big grid, and the global optimal layout is found through the comparison of the local solutions. The industrial robot layout method has been applied to the work cell design for car door welding.