Models and approaches for large scale supply chain planning

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Supply chain is all about collaboration for managing the product demand smoothly. The supply chain planning becomes complex as the number of products (and thus partners) grows. Most of the difficulty in planning arises from the uncertainties in demand and supply. To manage the supply chain smoothly, one option is to limit the number of products but businesses offer a portfolio of products to cater a large pool of customers. In this situation, to keep the supply chain lean, products are designed in such a way that most of the final products share several common or economically substitutable components / intermediate products and processes. There are two extremes: Designing the product specific component for each product; and designing a single universal component that can fit in every product. Both options come with certain advantages and disadvantages and to balance the advantages and disadvantages associated with the both, final products are segregated into different categories with each category sharing substitutable components. For instance, a paper roll of a specific width can be used to produce multiple final products of varied width.