The effects of a trust mechanism on a dynamic supply chain network

Recognizing trust as the basis for firm cooperation, we investigate how a trust mechanism affects a supply chain network using a dynamic multi-agent and multi-stage model that incorporates three supplier selection rules: a preferred price rule, a preferred trust rule, and a preferred random rule. We use this model to explore the impact of the three rules on supply chain performance and bankruptcy propagation under the conditions of external disruption, bank rate, and new firms entering the market. Our results identify the preferred trust rule as the supplier selection method that can in most cases best improve the total revenue of the whole supply chain network. In terms of firm bankruptcy, on the other hand, it is the preferred random rule that has the least impact and the preferred price rule that has the most.     

An agent-based approach for e-manufacturing and supply chain integration

A major problem facing manufacturing organisations is how to provide efficient and cost-effective responses to the unpredictable changes taking place in a global market. This problem is made difficult by the complexity of supply chain networks coupled with the complexity of individual manufacturing systems within supply chains. Current systems such as manufacturing execution systems (MES), supply chain management (SCM) systems and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems do not provide adequate facilities for addressing this problem. This paper presents an approach that would enable manufacturing organisations to dynamically and cost-effectively integrate, optimise, configure, simulate, restructure and control not only their own manufacturing systems but also their supply networks, in a co-ordinated manner to cope with the dynamic changes occurring in a global market. This is realised by a synergy of two emerging manufacturing concepts: Agent-based agile manufacturing systems and e-manufacturing. The concept is to represent a complex manufacturing system and its supply network with an agent-based modelling and simulation architecture and to dynamically generate alternative scenarios with respect to planning, scheduling, configuration and restructure of both the manufacturing system and its supply network based on the coordinated interactions amongst agents.     

基于Agent的分形供应链自适应协同计算

应用分形、智能Ａｇｅｎｔ和神经网络自适应控制技术,研究分形供应链适应环境变化的结构模式和策略模式．探讨了分形供应链Ａｇｅｎｔ关联结构,提出了分形供应链双层自适应协同计算模式,论述了资源Ａｇｅｎｔ,信息协调Ａｇｅｎｔ,人机交互Ａｇｅｎｔ和领域计算Ａｇｅｎｔ之间的相互作用关系．以一个分形模块的策略协同为分析对象,研究了领域单元的自适应协同计算模式,分析了分形模块的成本模型,并对基于Ａｇｅｎｔ交互的神经网络模型部分进行了算例仿真．     

Managing distributed business processes in the virtual enterprise

In this work the supply–chain coordination in the virtual enterprise environment is subject of analysis. The system developed by UFSC-DBPMS—for the management of distributed business process is presented and some basic concepts for its definition and development are detailed. The DBPMS provides means for getting, analyzing, making available and managing the information from and about a virtual enterprise, enabling the enterprises to make their logistics more efficiently by means of an integrated information-based supply-chain management. All the work presented in this paper was developed within the scope of the ESPRIT project PRODNET-II (production planning and management in an extended enterprise).     

A framework for measuring the performance of service supply chain management

Despite the increasing attention to the service supply chain management by both practitioners and academics, the performance measurement of service supply chains still remains unexplored. Most service firms realize that, in order to evolve an efficient and effective service supply chain, service supply chain management needs to be assessed for its performance. A literature review was conducted on performance measurement issues of service supply chains. This paper develops a framework of service supply chain performance measurement. Based on the strategic, tactical and operational level performance in a service supply chain, measures and metrics are discussed. The emphasis is on performance measures dealing with service supply chain processes such as demand management, customer relationship management, supplier relationship management, capacity and resource management, service performance, information and technology management and service supply chain finance. And to prioritize service supply chain performance measurement indicators to improve service supply chain performance, a methodology based on the extent fuzzy analytic hierarchy process is stressed. The developed framework of service supply chain performance measurement is applied to the hotel supply chain. The results of this study are useful both to practitioners in the service supply chain and to researchers carrying out further studies in the field.     

A multi-objective optimization for green supply chain network design

In this paper, we study a supply chain network design problem with environmental concerns. We are interested in the environmental investments decisions in the design phase and propose a multi-objective optimization model that captures the trade-off between the total cost and the environment influence. We conduct a comprehensive set of numerical experiments. The results show that our model can be applied as an effective tool in the strategic planning for green supply chain. Meanwhile, the sensitivity analysis provides some interesting managerial insights for firms.     

Reconfiguration framework of a supply network based on flexibility strategies

Because the supply network of an enterprise should be flexible enough to capture and overcome market dynamics, one of the major concerns of global enterprises is to make their supply network reconfigurable. Although many strategies for flexible management of a supply network have been proposed, especially for mitigating supply network risks, it still remains unclear how to apply the strategies to a supply network and how to reconfigure the supply network. This paper examines the influence of flexibility strategies in a dynamic global market environment on the structure of supply network, and proposes a method of reconfiguring the supply network of an enterprise to cope with its flexibility strategies. A reconfigurable supply network model is proposed, and flexibility strategies are classified, and critical indices of strategies are defined. In the proposed model, each business actor is defined as a network node and each node has its own goal. A node optimizes its goal to reduce and overcome the risk of market environments. The result of optimization indicates that the supply network structure is reconfigured dynamically.     

基于服务代理的敏捷供应链节点间接口实现

为实现跨越制造行业供应链各节点的信息流集成,提出了使用具有自治、适应、合作特征的细粒度服务代理的合作来实现供应链系统敏捷性和可重构性,研究4种不同类型节点间的交互需求,重点确定了服务代理并建立相应的服务规约,采用Web Service技术实现了一个钢铁行业敏捷供应链原型系统。实验结果表明,该方法能够帮助制造行业敏捷供应链节点企业以低成本根据供应链的形成和解体进行快速重构和调整,实现了制造行业供应链敏捷化目的。     

Simulation-based heuristic method for container supply chain network optimization

With the emerging of free trade zones (FTZs) in the world, the service level of container supply chain plays an important role in the efficiency, quality and cost of the world trade. The performance of container supply chain network directly impacts its service level. Therefore, it is imperative to seek an appropriate method to optimize the container supply chain network architecture. This paper deals with the modeling and optimization problem of multi-echelon container supply chain network (MCSCN). The problem is formulated as a mixed integer programming model (MIP), where the objective is subject to the minimization of the total supply chain service cost. Since the problem is well known to be NP-hard, a novel simulation-based heuristic method is proposed to solving it, where the heuristic is used for searching near-optimal solutions, and the simulation is used for evaluating solutions and repairing unfeasible solutions. The heuristic algorithm integrates genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, where the GA is used for global search and the PSO is used for local search. Finally, computational experiments are conducted to validate the performance of the proposed method and give some managerial implications.     

多周期多原料的供应链网络成本优化及其混合遗传算法

建立并求解一个基于成本最小的供应链网络模型.与以往研究不同,在该模型中生产一种产品需要至少两种原料,每种原料都可以由备选供应商提供.根据模型的特点,用0、1代表对原材料供应商、工厂和分销中心的选择情况,以MATLAB 7.6为平台,运用Sheffield大学的遗传算法工具箱,将遗传算法与线性规划算法相结合,实现了模型的求解.算例结果表明,给出的染色体编码方案正确,混合遗传算法有效,能解决多周期、多原料的供应链网络成本优化问题.还探讨了需求和距离变化,以及需求随机时对最优成本和最优个体的影响.研究表明,需求变化的影响大于距离变化的影响,需求随机对最优成本和最优个体的影响不大.     

多Agent的供应链分布式仿真系统设计与实现

供应链是由供应商、制造商、仓库、配送中心和渠道商等构成的物流网络。并且供应链已经为社会带来了巨大的经济效益,本文就多Agent的供应链分布式仿真系统设计做了详细的研究,以便其能够很快的得到实现。     

Towards an architecture for virtual enterprises

An approach to the design of an architecture for industrial virtual enterprises (VE), with special emphasis on the identification of main functional requirements, is presented. First, a discussion of the various types of virtual enterprises is provided. Some classification scenarios and discussions of the modelling and reengineering tools and methodologies are described. Due to the importance of the information flows and management in the VE, one section is merely devoted to the analysis of the appropriateness of a federated information management approach. This work is based on and represents the ongoing activities in two European Union funded projects; the Esprit PRODNET II and the INCO-DC SCM+ projects.     

A non-smooth optimization model for a two-tiered supply chain network

A non-smooth optimization model is established for a two-tiered supply chain network where manufacturers are at the upper level and consumers are at the lower level. A supply chain equilibrium model is considered at the lower level while policy interventions are taken into account at the upper level. A mathematical program with equilibrium constraints (MPEC) is established for the two-tiered supply chain network. Numerical illustrations are carried out using a 9-node network and preliminary results are reported.     

分布式数据库在商业供应链系统中的应用

随着网络中数据库应用的发展,使得分布式数据库的应用领域得到快速的扩展。针对商业流通企业大规模、分散式经营以及集团化管理的模式,提出了在商业供应链系统中采用分布式数据库的结构设计方案,对供应链系统的数据库体系进行了分析,对在数据库设计过程中的一些关键问题进行探讨并给出了解决方法。以Oracle 9i数据库系统为例,介绍了采用增量复制、分组、半连接技术,进行数据复制、解决数据冲突以及进行查询优化的实现方法。     

Queuing network model of uniformly distributed arrivals in a distributed supply chain using subcontracting

In this paper, a supply chain (four-input three-stage queuing network) receives uniformly distributed orders from clients. An input order is represented by two stochastic variables, occurrence time and the quantity of items to be delivered. The objective of this work is to compute the minimum response time, and thus the average number of items (optimum capacity) that can be delivered with this response time. Performance measures such as average queue lengths, average response times, and average waiting times of the jobs in the supply chain, and in the equivalent single-server network are derived, plotted and discussed.     

An algorithmic framework for network reconstruction

Models of biological systems and phenomena are of high scientific interest and practical relevance, but not always easy to obtain due to their inherent complexity. To gain the required insight, experimental data are provided and need to be interpreted in terms of models that explain the observed phenomena. In systems biology the framework of Petri nets is often used to describe models for the regulatory mechanisms of biological systems. The aim of this paper is to provide, based on results in Marwan et al. (2008) [1] and Durzinsky et al. (2008) [2], an algorithmic framework for the challenging task of generating all possible Petri nets fitting the given experimental data.     

An antibody network inspired evolutionary framework for distributed object computing

In order to meet the increasing scale and users requirements for the distributed object computing (DOC) systems, their infrastructures are highly desirable to be redesigned. Based on the principles of immune system and the evolution mechanisms learned from an antibody network model, a novel evolutionary framework for DOC (E-DOC) is proposed. The antibody network model as well as the evolution process including clonal proliferation, immune elimination, and immune memory is studied. Then, E-DOC framework based on the antibody network is proposed, whose simulation platform is designed and implemented. On the platform, the evolutionary features are studied by: (1) diversity and stability of antibodies and genotypes, (2) detection and elimination of antigens, (3) effect of immune memory, and (4) tendency of eliminated and stimulated antigens. The experiment results show that the proposed framework can achieve the evolution ability and the promising performance, which are critical to DOC systems. E-DOC is extendable for the future design of distributed object middleware, such as WebSphere Application Server and BEA WebLogic Application Server.     

An expert fuzzy rule-based system for closed-loop supply chain performance assessment in the automotive industry

Closed-loop supply chain management has been identified as an efficient, effective and economical strategy towards environmental sustainable practices in manufacturing companies. Without a formidable closed-loop supply chain to complement green supply chain management, most of the goals will not be achieved. A performance evaluation system is crucial for achieving a successful closed-loop supply chain in the automotive industry. Hence, a suitable expert fuzzy rule-based system for evaluation was developed in this study using Visual Basic.Net. The fuzzy rules and arithmetic used were described. The resulting performance measurement system was evaluated using a case study company from the automotive industry. The study culminated with recommendations and proposal of directions for future studies.     

An integrated QFD framework with multiple formatted and incomplete preferences: A sustainable supply chain application

Merging sustainable development with the business, and taking goals into account from its three dimensions (i.e., economic, environmental and social) which are derived from customer and stakeholder requirements have been a potential source of competitive differentiation for firms. Academic and corporate interest in sustainable supply chain (SSC) management has also risen considerably in recent years. This paper examines the components and elements of SSC management and how they serve as a foundation for an evaluation framework. By using quality function deployment (QFD) as a product/system planning and improvement tool, an effective SSC structure can be obtained. QFD uses a matrix called the “House of Quality” (HoQ), and constructing the HoQ is a critical step in the application of QFD as it translates customer requirements into engineering characteristics. However, participants of HoQ construction sessions tend to provide information about their individual judgments in multiple formats such as numerically or linguistically depending on their different knowledge, experience, culture and circumstance. Furthermore, they can generate incomplete preferences which are challenging to assess in a consistent way. Therefore, the objective of this study is to apply an extended QFD methodology in SSC by introducing a new group decision making (GDM) approach that takes multiple preference formats and incomplete information into account and fusions different formats of expressions into one uniform group decision by means of the fuzzy set theory. To assess the validity of the proposed approach, a case study conducted at HAVI Logistics-Turkey is also presented in the paper.