精敏供应链的综述及展望

系统回顾了供应链策略从精益、敏捷到精敏的发展历程;从降低供应链运作及管理的复杂度考虑,提出子供应链的概念并分析了精益与敏捷子供应链如何串、并行集成为精敏模式及相应的优势;最后展望了进一步的研究方向.     

Methodological approaches to supply chain design1

This paper reviews methodological approaches to the design (or redesign) of the supply chain (SC), including comprehensive approaches (proposals concerning the entire process of designing the SC) and those that deal with four specific aspects of the process (definition of the SC objectives, reverse SC, finance, and generation and use of scenarios) that have a decisive influence on the whole design of the SC. The comprehensive approaches include those based on typologies of products, markets and SCs and those that propose a succession of the stages to follow through the design process. The discussion shows that the use of typologies is not adequate to face SC design and that the methods proposing a succession of stages may suit, provided that they are developed and presented in a manner appropriate to their use for practitioners. The discussion leads also to suggest several research lines.     

Dynamic supply chain design: a Delphi study of drivers and barriers

Supply chain management has both in academia and practice proven its important role to sustain and further develop companies’ competitive advantages. This is with initiatives that focus on cost-efficiencies and turnover improvement. During the last two decades, companies have faced complexity in their supply chains currently with increased global operations. The dynamic business environment forces companies to secure a competitive (re-) design of their supply chains. This paper seeks to advance the understanding on the drivers and barriers for such designs. In total, 39 experts (30 from industrial enterprises, 4 senior supply chain consultants and 5 supply chain management professors) have participated in a four-step Delphi study and have identified main drivers for dynamic supply chain design as being cost reduction, delivery reliability and change in demand for agility. The main barriers are identified as forecasting being too weak, supply chain complexity and product portfolio complexity. In addition, an explorative factor analysis has been carried out to identify how drivers and barriers can be grouped together. Finally, the paper compares the drivers and barriers underlining different competitive strategies.     

Product complexity and supply chain design

To assemble a product, each and every part is required. Hence, the more parts in the product, the greater the risk of disruption. Compared with retailers or assemblers of simple products, manufacturers of complex products are much more sensitive to supply chain delays. This heightened vulnerability to supply chain disruptions should lead complex product assemblers to design less risky supply chains. Supply chain design should depend on the complexity of the product assembled or manufactured. This paper models how product complexity drives the likelihood of disruption for given component supply chain reliabilities. The paper provides insights for supply chain design that comprehends the impact of product complexity.     

Review of supply chain configuration and design decision-making for new product

The nature of competitive markets continuously pushes manufacturers to develop new products to meet the increasingly diversified customer demands. Manufacturers thus have to handle the complexities generated during the total life cycles of various product types, from product design to procurement, production, marketing and recycling. Though some management practices in mass customisation help to improve the performance of manufacturing systems, there are still some fundamental problems not covered. Joint decision-making of product and supply chain design, for example, is one of them. The existing industrial practice tends to treat these two problems separately. Decoupling these two problems decrease the design complexity but may lead to suboptimal decision outcome. To enhance understanding of the interconnected decisions for supply chain management and product design, this review collects related literature on this topic and focuses on the analysis of existing papers from an operation research perspective.     

Military supply chains and closed-loop systems: resource allocation and incentives in supply sourcing and supply chain design

The US military operates some of the largest and most complex supply chains in the world and their experience provides insight into a variety of supply chain issues. This paper taps that experience to study how the design of a supply chain is influenced by its economic environment. Consider these circumstances: the military is not a profit-seeking enterprise, they want to achieve a particular state of readiness and cost is secondary to that goal. Modern weapons systems are complex, expensive, push the envelope of technology, and the volume requisitioned is often small such that few manufacturers can afford to be in the business; and these expensive weapons systems operate in harsh operating conditions where wear and tear is substantial, consequently remanufacturing of systems and parts is a critical source of supply. Focusing on the supply chain of the US Army, this paper uses an economic model to study their responses to these conditions, how supply chain design is affected by these conflicting goals, and how those designs affect cost and efficiency.     

Agile supply chain strategy and supply chain performance: complementary roles of supply chain practices and information systems capability for agility

The paper examines the mediating effect of supply chain (SC) practices on the relationship between agile supply chain (ASC) strategy and SC performance. It further examines the moderating effect of information systems (IS) capability for agility on this mediated relationship. Using the theoretical lenses of complementarity and the information processing view of the supply chain, we hypothesise that strategic supplier partnership, customer relationship, postponement and lean practices, mediate the relationship between ASC strategy and SC performance. We further hypothesise that IS capability for agility moderates each of these mediated relationships. We empirically test the hypotheses using survey data from members of senior and executive management in the logistics/supply chain functions of 205 firms. The paper contributes to the literature on ASCs by theoretically explaining and empirically demonstrating how SC practices and IS capability for agility act together to effect a positive relationship between ASC strategy and supply chain performance.     

Risks and performance in supply chain: the push effect

A risk, when it occurs, causes negative effects on outputs. Typically risks are not independent, as multiple risks occur simultaneously. These risks have links, creating a ‘push’ effect, thus increasing the severity of each and all risk(s) on outputs. This paper aims to verify the mechanism of the push effect that is a new approach in the supply chain risk management literature. In this study, two models were compared: (1) only exists in direct effects of risks on supply chain performance, i.e. the competitive model. The other, (2), contains relationships among risks that show the mechanism of the push effect, i.e. the hypothesised model. Empirical evidence found in the Vietnam construction sector proved that the hypothesised model is better suited and has greater effect on supply chain performance in terms of each and all risk(s). Comparing 55% variance of the competitive model, the hypothesised one can explain up to 73% variance of supply chain performance. These results confirm our hypotheses of the push effect. Furthermore, findings achieved from this research can be used as ‘a guideline’ for reducing the impact of this mechanism.     

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。     

New flexibility drivers for manufacturing,supply chain and service operations

Increasing product proliferation, customisation, competition and customer expectations, as well as supply side disruptions, pose significant challenges to firm operations. Such challenges require improved efficiency and resilience in manufacturing, service and supply chain systems. New and innovative flexibility concepts and models offer a prospective route to such operational improvements. Several emerging issues in flexibility, such as risk and uncertainty management, environmental sustainability, optimal strategies under competition, optimal operations with strategic consumer behaviours are being examined in this regard. This overview provides a concise review of these critical research issues, and discusses related papers featured in this special issue. Four major flexibility drivers are classified: disruption risks, resilience and the ripple effect in the supply chain; digitalisation, smart operations and e-supply chains; sustainability and closed-loop supply chains; and supplier integration and behavioural flexibility.     

Multi-level supply chain network design with routing

Recently, the multi-level and multi-facility industrial problem in supply chain management (SCM) has been widely investigated. One of the key issues, central to this problem in the current SCM research area is the interdependence among the location of facilities, the allocation of facilities, and the vehicle routing for the supply of raw materials and products. This paper studies the supply chain network design problem, which involves the location of facilities, allocation of facilities, and routing decisions. The proposed problem has some practical applications. For example, it is necessary for third party logistics (3PL) companies to manage the design of the network and to operate vehicle transportation. The purpose of this study is to determine the optimal location, allocation, and routing with minimum cost to the supply chain network. The study proposes two mixed integer programming models, one without routing and one with routing, and a heuristic algorithm based on LP-relaxation in order to solve the model with routing. The results show that a developed heuristic algorithm is able to find a good solution in a reasonable time.     

基于LMI的灰色非线性精敏供应链稳定性判定方法

平稳运行是精敏供应链管理的重要基础,针对具有区间灰色非线性特征的精敏供应链系统波动性的难题,以非线性时滞精敏供应链系统为研究基础,建立了灰色非线性精敏供应链系统,采用线性矩阵不等式算法分析其稳定性问题,并获取了一种灰色非线性精敏供应链系统的稳定性判定方法。为验证该方法的有效性和可行性,以医药行业YL集团核心产品的供应链系统为案例分析对象,通过观测两个时点的运行数据,使用Matlab70计算工具,得出［0,20］和［20,40］2个时间段供应链系统的稳定性状态变化图。并假设当客户订货分离点(CODP)下移时,运用同样的观测数据,模拟系统稳定性状态的变化。对比案例分析的结果得出结论：随着CODP从精敏供应链的上游端在下移至下游端时,不仅仅体现的是供应链系统类型的改变,而且更重要的是揭示了精益供应链和敏捷供应链稳定性的影响因素不同,前者受订单量大小程度的影响,而后者由市场需求预测的准确性程度决定。     

Revealing interfaces of supply chain resilience and sustainability: a simulation study

Dynamics of structures and processes is one of the underlying challenges in supply chain management, where multiple dimensions of economic efficiency, risk management and sustainability are interconnected. One of the substantiated issues in supply chain dynamics is resilience. Resilience has a number of intersections with supply chain sustainability. This paper aims at analysing disruption propagation in the supply chain with consideration of sustainability factors in order to design resilient supply chain structure in regard to ripple effect mitigation and sustainability increase. Ripple effect in the supply chain occurs if a disruption at a supplier cannot be localised and cascades downstream impacting supply chain performance. This simulation-based study helps to identify what sustainability factors mitigate the ripple effect in the supply chain and what sustainability factors enhance this effect. The results indicate that (i) sustainable single sourcing enhances the ripple effect; (ii) facility fortification at major employers in regions mitigates the ripple effect and enhances sustainability; and (iii) a reduction in storage facilities in the supply chain downstream of a disruption-risky facility increases sustainability but causes the ripple effect.     

A systematic review of China’s belt and road initiative: implications for global supply chain management

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is one of the world’s largest infrastructure projects, with its potential political and economic impact being widely discussed since its inception in 2013. Yet the phenomenon has received only limited attention in the Supply Chain Management (SCM) literature. In response, we first conduct a broad systematic review of the literature to assess how China’s BRI is portrayed. Using this as a backdrop, we then distil the likely impact of the BRI on location decisions and supply chain flows. Finally, in a broader discussion of the SCM literature, we explore the implications of the BRI for future research in four key areas: supply chain configuration, supply chain resilience, sustainable SCM, and cross border SCM. While these areas are not new, the BRI presents a unique context that can be used to enhance theory and understanding in each area. The BRI reduces time distance independent of geographical distance by diverting supply chain flows from established routes to new routes via far less accessible regions. This introduces new risks and sustainability issues that call for multi-criteria decision support systems. Another important issue is the adoption and diffusion of the BRI since this will ultimately determine project success.     

A distributed approximation approach for solving the sustainable supply chain network design problem

This paper introduces a comprehensive Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model for a sustainable supply chain network design problem, and an efficient Distributed Approximation Approach (DAA) to solve it approximately. We study a multi-echelon, multi-product and multi-modal supply chain with different transportation modes. Besides relevant costs in the supply chain such as procurement, production and distribution cost, we also explicitly consider the environmental footprint, represented by carbon emissions and water consumption from production and transportation. The approximation approach is a decomposition-based method. First, the original problem is divided into a partner selection sub-problem and a transportation planning sub-problem. Then multiple filter mechanisms are used to remove potentially infeasible solutions, and an approximate value of the objective function is calculated for each of the remaining solutions to perform a further selection. The one with the lowest approximation is chosen to be applied with a branch-and-bound method. Finally, the algorithm is paralleled and implemented in Apache Spark distributed computing framework to further improve efficiency. Experimental results show that the proposed DAA can provide high quality solutions compared to the optimal solutions of the MILP model with mostly a negligible relative gap and solve large instances in much shorter time than CPLEX. Moreover, in our numerical study, we also compare the results of our model with another version of the model that does not take the environmental footprint into consideration. The results show that explicitly incorporating environmental footprint results in a substantial decrease of CO₂ emissions and water consumption at a negligible cost increase. This insight may be of interest to managers and other decision makers and policy makers.     

Robust supply chain networks design and ambiguous risk preferences

In this paper, a robust stochastic optimisation model for regret minimising is proposed for supply chain networks design. The model emphasises the ambiguity lying in both the risk preference and the probability distribution. A duality theory for the model is derived and the random utility functions are identified as the Lagrange multipliers. In addition, a tractable relaxation based on reformulation-linearisation technique is presented for the computational aspects of the model. The numerical experiments show that our regret minimising model can make a well balance between the conservativeness of a pure robust optimisation model and the optimism of risk-neutrality. We also present a case study to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model.     

Blockchain-oriented dynamic modelling of smart contract design and execution in the supply chain

Recently, the applications of Blockchain technology have begun to revolutionise different aspects of supply chain (SC) management. Among others, Blockchain is a platform to execute the smart contracts in the SC as transactions. We develop and test a new model for smart contract design in the SC with multiple logistics service providers and show that this problem can be presented as a multi-processor flexible flow shop scheduling. A distinctive feature of our approach is that the execution of physical operations is modelled inside the start and completion of cyber information services. We name this modelling concept ‘virtual operation’. The constructed model and the developed experimental environment constitute an event-driven dynamic approach to task and service composition when designing the smart contract. Our approach is also of value when considering the contract execution stage. The use of state control variables in our model allows for operations status updates in the Blockchain that in turn, feeds automated information feedbacks, disruption detection and control of contract execution. The latter launches the re-scheduling procedure, comprehensively combining planning and adaptation decisions within a unified methodological framework of dynamic control theory. The modelling complex developed can be used to design and control smart contracts in the SC.     

Blood supply chain network design considering blood group compatibility under uncertainty

This paper addresses the design of a blood supply chain (SC) network considering blood group compatibility. To this aim, a bi-objective mathematical programming model is developed which minimises the total cost as well as the maximum unsatisfied demand. Due to uncertain nature of some input parameters, two novel robust possibilistic programming models are proposed based on credibility measure. The data of a real case study are then used to illustrate the applicability and performance of the proposed models as well as validating the proposed robust possibilistic programming approach. The obtained results show the superiority of the developed models and significant cost savings compared to current existed blood SC network.     

The performance impact of supply chain agility and supply chain adaptability: the moderating effect of product complexity

Even though research has suggested that supply chain agility and supply chain adaptability are distinct capabilities, little is known about their performance effects and about the contextual conditions under which they are effective. Based on a sample of 143 German firms, we empirically investigate the effects of supply chain agility and supply chain adaptability on cost performance and operational performance using hierarchical regression analysis. We ground our investigation in the dynamic capabilities view and contingency theory. We find that supply chain agility and supply chain adaptability positively affect both cost performance and operational performance. We further find evidence for a mediating role of supply chain agility in the links between supply chain adaptability and performance. Product complexity positively moderates the links between supply chain adaptability and cost performance, and supply chain adaptability and operational performance. The results contribute to the literature by offering a more nuanced understanding of the performance implications of supply chain agility and supply chain adaptability, thereby addressing the crucial question of why their benefits may or may not materialise under varying levels of product complexity.     

On measuring company performance within a supply chain

Emerging research strengthens the connection between supply chain performance and a company's financial performance (D’Avanzo, R., Von Lewinski, H. and Van Wassenhove, L. N., 2003. The link between supply chain and financial performance. Supply Chain Management Review, November/December, 40–47). The focus on integrating functional internal processes has expanded to include the need for integrating these with external processes of business partners (Edwards, P., Peters, M. and Sharman, G., 2001. The effectiveness of information systems in supporting the extended supply chain. Journal of Business Logistics, 22(1), 1–27). This need for enterprise efficiency is compelling companies to review, to identify, and to adopt supply chain initiatives. This research investigates the use of common measurement metrics in an attempt to determine which one(s) are most useful for measuring performance as companies implement SCM practices. For firms that were engaged in SCM we found inventory and cycle time to be the most significant metrics.