Architecture for supply chain analysis and methodology for quantitative measurement of supply chain flexibility

Abstract

One of the biggest challenges for manufacturing supply chains in current business environment is to continuously improve their performance so that their competitiveness can be sustained in long term. Facing this challenge, manufacturing supply chains need to analyze their performance quantitatively. In this thesis, performance measurement of supply chain and quantitative measurement of supply chain flexibility have been explored, discussed, and researched for the purpose of quantitative analysis of supply chain performance. It can be generally divided into three parts.

The first part is devoted to create an in-depth understanding of supply chain and essential basics of performance measurement of supply chain. The research in this part has provided a sound base on which the architecture for performance measurement of supply chain in the second part has been established and the methodological framework for measurement of supply chain flexibility in the third part has been development.

In the second part, the questions “what to measure?” and “how to measure?” in the context of performance measurement of supply chain have been answered. The architecture for performance measurement of supply chain that developed in this part has provided a methodology by using which manufacturing supply chains can obtain their overall performance comprehensively.

The third part of this dissertation is devoted to solve the problems that are found in quantifying flexibility of supply chain. The methodological framework for measurement of supply chain flexibility has been developed in order to direct the quantification of supply chain flexibility at a theoretical level. Fuzzy Logic and Artificial Neural Network methods have been applied in order to handle the fuzziness in measures as well as in deriving process of obtaining value of different types of flexibility and utilize the expertise a supply chain has in synthesizing overall supply chain flexibility, respectively.

A computerized model has been finally developed under MatLabâ software environment. By using this model, quantified value of each type of supply chain flexibility as well as quantified value of overall supply chain flexibility can be derived rapidly.