A SYNCHRONIZED MODELLING APPROACH FOR STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL PLANNING OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN

Abstract

ABSTRACT Many previous supply chain (SC) management researches focused only on the individual segment of the SC. This paper proposes a synthetic approach, which combines the strategic and operational planning tasks of the SC management. In this synchronized planning approach, the centralized coordination framework can consider the production and marketing preferences as well as customer service requirements, and make optimal strategic suggestions of the SC configuration and material flows with the minimal total SC cost. Moreover, the corresponding operational planning decisions for raw material management, production control, finished products stockpile control, and distribution control are also generated. Sensitivity analyses are performed to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the synchronized model under a wide range of SC planning scenarios. Simulation results show that the proposed planning approach can assist the SC planner in designing the optimal SC system.