Dynamic assessment of control system designs of information shared supply chain network experiencing supplier disruption

Abstract

The importance of acquiring and sharing real-time disruption information in the supply chain for proper deployment of disruption mitigation strategies is well-known in the literature. However, studies in this direction are limited in the domain of supply chain dynamics. In this paper, we investigate the effect of sharing real-time disruption and inventory information to mitigate supplier disruption through proper order allocation between the suppliers. We consider a three-echelon manufacturing supply chain network where a manufacturer and first-tier suppliers adopt dual sourcing. At the first-tier supplier level, the supply chain network is subjected to random disruption. Using control engineering modeling and simulation, we first evaluate the value of information sharing in disruption mitigation efforts, and further, we examine the effect of various control system design configurations of the manufacturer to maximize its dynamic performance in the information shared supply chain settings. The results show that, in the case of upstream supplier disruption, information transparency on the vulnerabilities among supply chain members improves the performance. Further, it is observed that for a given control structure, the selection of decision parameters affect the dynamic performance of the supply chain with proper order allocation strategy during the disruption. The findings of this research can provide the basis for managers to make informed decisions about using mitigation strategies with their supply chain partners.