Optimizing the supply chain configuration for new products

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Graves, SC; Willems, SP
• 署名单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Boston University
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.1050.0367
• 发表日期: 2005
• 页码: 1165-1180
• 关键词: dynamic programming application; multiechelon inventory system; multistage supply chain application; total landed-cost optimization; supply chain sourcing and design; supply chain configuration for new products

摘要

We address how to configure the supply chain for a new product for which the design has already been decided. The central question is to determine what suppliers, parts, processes, and transportation modes to select at each stage in the supply chain. There might be multiple options to supply a raw material, to manufacture or assemble the product, and to transport the product to the customer. Each of these options is differentiated by its lead time and direct cost added. Given these various choices along the supply chain, the configuration problem is to select the options that minimize the total supply chain cost. We develop a dynamic program with two state variables to solve the supply chain configuration problem for supply chains that are modeled as spanning trees. We illustrate the problem and its solution with an industrial example. We use the example to show the benefit from optimization relative to heuristics and to form hypotheses concerning the structure of optimal supply chain configurations. We conduct a computational experiment to test these hypotheses.