AGENT-BASED WORKFLOW COORDINATION FOR SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

To align customer demand with suppliers for reducing work in process and supply costs and increasing re sp onsiveness to customer requirements, a real time collaborative supply chain mana gement system is essential. A solution to the realization of supply chain manage ment capable of timely responding to customer requirements is proposed. Workflow automation is used to manage process interaction across enterprises; Agents can be automatically invoked by supply chain workflow process and are used to pro mote the flexibility and reconfigurability by providing the mechanism in support of distributed compution in an enterprises to meet the requirements of performa nce and business dynamics. An approach that supports agent based workflow proce ss in a supply chain is proposed. And the coordination mechanism between agents is also discussed.

An Overview of the Application of Big Data in Supply Chain Management and Adaptation in Nigeria

That the world is a global village is no longer news through the tremendous advancement in the Information Communication Technology (ICT). The metamorphosis of the human data storage and analysis from analogue through the jaguars-loom mainframe computer to the present modern high power processing computers with sextillion bytes storage capacity has prompted discussion of Big Data concept as a tool in managing hitherto all human challenges of complex human system multiplier effects. The supply chain management (SCM) that deals with spatial service delivery that must be safe, efficient, reliable, cheap, transparent, and foreseeable to meet customers’ needs cannot but employ bid data tools in its operation. This study employs secondary data online to review the importance of big data in supply chain management and the levels of adoption in Nigeria. The study revealed that the application of big data tools in SCM and other industrial sectors is synonymous to human and national development. It is therefore recommended that both private and governmental bodies should key into e-transactions for easy data assemblage and analysis for profitable forecasting and policy formation.

Research on Innovation Strategy of Supply Chain Management of Agricultural Enterprises Under the Background of Big Data

With the rapid development and widespread application of Big Data technology, the supply chain management of agricultural products enterprises is facing unprecedented reform and challenges. This study takes the perspective of Big Data technology and collects relevant information on the application of supply chain management in 100 agricultural product enterprises through a survey questionnaire. The study found that the use of Big Data can effectively improve the accuracy of demand forecasting, inventory management efficiency, optimize logistics costs, improve supplier management efficiency, enhance the overall level of supply chain management of enterprises, and propose innovative strategies for supply chain management of agricultural products enterprises based on this. Big Data technology brings a new solution for agricultural products enterprises to enhance their supply chain management level, making the supply chain smarter and more efficient.

Research on Procurement Cost Control Based on Supply Chain Management

In modern enterprise management,strengthening the control and management of procurement processes can effectively reduce operational costs.However,with the continuous reform and improvement of China’s market economy system,competition among supply chain enterprises has intensified.The traditional procurement management model is no longer able to meet the needs of enterprise development in the current era.As a result,procurement management based on supply chain management has emerged,offering significant improvements in the scientific management of procurement processes.It has become an important means of promoting the long-term development of enterprises.This paper primarily analyzes and studies procurement cost control based on supply chain management,providing insights for reference.

Automobile Transportation Logistics Supply Chain Management Strategy

To enhance the management level and quality of the automobile transportation logistics supply chain and promote innovation and development in automobile transportation logistics enterprises,it is essential to strengthen the construction of the automobile transportation logistics supply chain management model.This can be achieved through the gradual improvement of the automobile transportation logistics management process,ensuring that the management of the automobile transportation logistics supply chain proceeds in an orderly manner.The aim is to improve automobile transportation and logistics service levels while meeting the changing market supply needs.This will enable automobile transportation and logistics enterprises to maintain steady economic benefits and enhance their core competitiveness in the market.Therefore,this paper has conducted a comprehensive exploration and research on managing the automobile transportation logistics supply chain.Corresponding management strategies are proposed as a starting point to achieve the aforementioned goals.

Trade credit financing for supply chain coordination under financial challenges:a multi‑leader–follower game approach

This study is designed to solve supply chain inefficiencies caused by some members’financial problems,such as capital shortages and financing restrictions in a stochastic environment.To this end,we have established a supply chain finance framework by designing two novel coordinating contracts based on trade credit financing for different problem settings.These contracts are modeled in the form of multi-leader Stackelberg games that address horizontal and vertical competition in a supply chain consisting of multiple suppliers and a financially constrained manufacturer.However,previous studies in the trade credit literature have addressed only simple vertical competition,that is,seller-buyer competition.To solve the proposed models,two algorithms were developed by combining population-based metaheuristics,the Nash-domination concept,and the Nikaido-Isoda function.The results demonstrate that the proposed supply chain finance framework can eliminate supply chain inefficiencies and make a large profit for suppliers,as well as the financially constrained manufacturer.Furthermore,the results of the contracts’analysis showed that if the manufacturer is required to settle its payments to suppliers before the end of the period,the trade credit contract cannot coordinate the supply chain because of a lack of incentive for suppliers.However,if the manufacturer is allowed to extend its payments to the end of the period,the proposed trade credit financing contract can coordinate the supply chain.Finally,the sensitivity analysis results indicate that the worse the financial status of the manufacturer,the more bargaining power suppliers have in determining the contract parameters for more profit.

DISRUPTION MANAGEMENT FOR SUPPLY CHAIN COORDINATION WITH EXPONENTIAL DEMAND FUNCTION

The coordination problem of a supply chain comprising one supplier and one retailer under market demand disruption is studied in this article. A novel exponential demand function is adopted, and the penalty cost is introduced explicitly to capture the deviation production cost caused by the market demand disruption. The optimal strategies are obtained for different disruption scale under the centralized mode. For the decentralized mode, it is proved that the supply chain can be fully coordinated by adjusting the price discount policy appropriately when disruption occurs. Furthermore, the authors point out that similar results can be established for more general demand functions that represent different market circumstances if certain assumptions are satisfied.

Supply chain coordination mechanisms under asymmetric information with retailer cost disruptions

A two-level supply chain model involving one supplier and one retailer with linear demand is developed, and supply chain coordination mechanisms under asymmetric information （the retailer＇ s cost structure is asymmetric information） are proposed by employing game theory in two scenarios： coordination mechanisms under asymmetric information in a regular scenario （without disruption）; and coordination mechanisms under asymmetric information in an irregular scenario （ with retailer cost disruptions）. It is optimal for the supply chain to maintain the original production plan and to guarantee a steadily running system if variations of retailer costs are sufficiently low and do not exceed an upper bound. This shows that the original production plan has certain robustness under disruptions. Decisions must be re-made if a retailer＇ s cost change is greater and exceeds an upper bound. Impacts of retailer cost disruptions on the order quantity, the retail price, the wholesale price and each party＇ s as well as the system＇ s expected profits are investigated through numerical analyses.

Research on telecommunication resale service supply chain coordination with revenue-sharing contract

The competition and cooperation between traditional telecom operators and resale operators in the supply chain are discussed, when the telecom industry developed telecommunication resale service. Supply chain contract is an effective way to coordinate the supply chain. This paper analyzes the revenue-sharing contract between telecom operators and resale operators. The study shows that by setting up a rational revenue-sharing ratio and wholesale price, a revenue-sharing contract can coordinate this supply chain, and telecom operators and resale operators can achieve a 'win-win' solution.

Supply chain coordination with participators' risk bias under buy-back contract

Considering participators' risk bias,which is measured by the method of value at risk,the risk constraints in a two-echelon supply chain coordination under buy-back contract is equal to giving the order of an upper bound.With a risk-averse dominant enterprise(M)and a risk-neutral non-dominant one(R),the coordination which optimizes the supply chain under the risk constraints is achieved by a penalty mechanism L to reduce R's order.With risk-neutral M and risk-averse R,M can motivate R to increase his order by providing a risk subsidy K,and two cases are discussed.If the risk constraints of R cannot satisfy M's participation constraint to offer K,M will prefer to accept R's order to obtain a sub-optimization solution of the supply chain.Or else,with M's K,R's optimal order just coordinates the supply chain,which is equal to the case without risk bias,and in this situation R's risk bias only affects the profit distribution between the participators.

Supply Chain Coordination with Demand Disruptions under Convex Production Cost Function

This paper investigates the problem of how to handling demand disruptions ina one-supplier-one-retailer supply chain, where production cost is a convex function of productionquantity andprice-demand relationship is linear. Our results show that, ifdemand is disrupted, underthe new price-demand relationship, all-unit wholesale quantity discount policies combiningcapacitated linear pricingpolicies can also fully coordinate the supply chain.

Methods of vendor managed inventory control in supply chain management

By inducing the typical inventory control problem - the bullwhip effect, this paper presents vendor managed inventory (VMI) control methods on the basis of traditional methods of inventory management methods, constructs a VMI mathematics model, and analyzes the influence of VMI on inventory cost and channel profit. Finally, a special case is studied to verify that VMI is an effective supply chain strategy that can not only increase channel profit of supplier and customer but also improve full channel coordination, thereby reducing the bullwhip effect.

Supply chain coordination mechanisms under flexible contracts

In supply chain management,an important research direction is to coordinate the supply chain through introducing flexible contracts.A supply chain contract is flexible if it can satisfy two conditions at the same time：the supply chain is coordinated,and the total profit of the supply chain can be arbitrarily divided between the supply chain members.This paper puts out two contracts,a flexible return contract and a flexible wholesale price discount contract.In contrast to many of literature,the supply chain contracts with an endogenous wholesale price is specifically considered,and a detailed sensitivity analysis of the contract parameters is given.The paper also discusses the application of the contract in vendor-managed inventory（VMI） mode.The results show that the supply chain＇s performance is improved after introducing above contracts.All the findings are illustrated by numerical examples.

Coordination game model of co-opetition relationship on cluster supply chains

The research of cluster supply chains is a new direction and a hotspot of the industrial cluster theory. On the condition of the coordination game, the enterprises may be stuck on the non-efficient equilibrium status, which becomes an important problem that must be considered on cluster supply chains. A symmetrical coordination game model is constituted to describe the competition and cooperation relationship of the same-quality manufacturers on cluster supply chains. The methods of the non-cooperation game theory and the evolutionary game theory are respectively used to analyze the model, whose parameters＇ influences under each method are then compared. It can be concluded that the analysis of the evolutionary game theory is more realistic and practical. Finally, three approaches are considered to break away from being path-dependence locked-in non-efficient status during this coordination game evolutionary process, which provide the development of cluster supply chains with an effective forecasting and Pareto optimizing method.

Coordination of Multi-leaders and Multi-followers in Supply Chain of Value-Added Telecom Services

In order to study supply chain of the telecom value-added service,a multi-leaders and multi-followers Stackelberg game model with multiple telecom operators and multiple service providers whose income is composed of information fee division and advertisement was constructed.Then a demonstration was simulated,and the results were compared with the situation of service providers' income only from information fee division.The simulated and compared results indicate that,the enterprises in the supply chain have the nature of pursuing the maximum profits in capital markets;meanwhile,first-mover advantages and some enterprise can get more profits with the information asymmetry.

E-Supply Chain Incentive and Coordination Based on Revenue Sharing Contract

This paper took the buyer-biased electronic market as an example, where multiple suppliers selling short-life-cycle products are bidding for an order from a powerful buyer with stochastic customer demand. It used a single period newsvendor model to analyze the decision of supplied and buyers to do or not do business online. The results suggest that lack of Incentive is the key factor of B2B electronic markets failure. At the same time, it designed a revenue sharing contract to coordinate the E-supply chain in order to prevent failure of E-market.

Improving construction performance through supply chain management

A typical model of construction supply chain (CSC) is presented firstly. Then the characteristics and problems of CSC are identified. The authors also describe the progress towards adoption of supply chain management (SCM) in the construction industry. Traditional construction management approaches (CMAs) are compared with new SCM-based CMAs. The authors suggest that integrated SCM based on cooperating competition is crucial to improve construction performance. Based on relevant results from related research, a framework for integrated construction supply chain management (CSCM) is developed to guide the effective implementation of SCM in construction.

Collaborative Supply Chain Management: A Critical Redesigning Factor

In improving the competitiveness of business organi sa tion in the 21st century, minimising cost and increasing productivity are no lon ger factors that could promise the success. The changes in customer trends whic h focusing more on product or service customising, high quality and short delive ry times are additional crucial factors that organisation should be aware of. T hese factors have direct relations on how the management could utilise the capab ility of its supply chain management (SCM). The importance of SCM in organisati on specifically to manufacturer is to play a vital role in managing the flow of material and information along the chain from suppliers to customers. In a trad itional way, SCM is mainly manage by the production department in organisation b ut with the advancement in information technology, resulted the changes in worki ng environment. One of the ways that could be implemented in decision making p rocess in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the decision is t hrough collaborative environment. Due to this situation, there is a need to rede sign the existing SCM in order to optimise its capability and functionality in t he way to ensure the organisation competitiveness is sustainable. A minor or ma jor alignment to SCM business processes should be done in order to streamline th e flow of information, which could also affect the flow of materials. Factors s uch as SCM operational, structural and even its managerial are among the issues that are critical in redesigning its business process. Each of these factors has its own attributes such as lead-times, complexity, frequency and organisationa l setting that could lead in improving organisational competitiveness. In additi on, by identifying these factors, it would help the management to plan and desig n the collaborative SCM that would effectively correspond to the changes in busi ness and customer trends. The intention of the paper is to promote a list of fa ctors and attributes, which are critical in redesigning an existing SCM in order to shift its environment to become collaborative SCM. By utilising these facto rs and attributes, a model for redesigning SCM into collaborative environment is currently developed by the author and will be used in the next stage of his res earch.

Solution and Application Development of the Supply Chain Management System in SINOPEC

SINOPEC is an integrated energy and chemical company engaging in upstream,midstream and downstream operations. The business of SINOPEC covers E&P of oil and gas, refining,chemical production, as well as sales and marketing of refined oil products. In the field of oil andnatural gas exploration and development, there are 13 upstream subsidiaries in SINOPEC. By the endof 2003, the proven reserves of crude oil were 3,257 mmbbls, and natural gas reserves totaled2,887.6 bcf. The oil and gas production in 2003 included 270.96 mmbbls of oil and 187.7 bcf ofnatural gas. In the area of middle-stream operation, SINOPEC has 33 refineries. The total capacityof crude distillation is 153.9 million tons/year, about 51% of the total distillation capacity inChina. In 2003, 123.5 million tons of crude oil was processed, around 53% of total crude processedin China.

Supply chain coordination with CCPP for a short-life-cycle product

Supply chain coordination for short-life-cycle products with price-dependent demand is a focus in present operation management and management science fields. This paper considers the supply chain coordination problem for a single-cycle and two-selling-stage short-life-cycle product. Firstly, the inventory model of whole system is depicted with a stochastic dynamics programming. Then, a new combined contract CCPP （combined contract with pending prices） is developed to coordinate the decentralized system, and its validity for channel coordination is proved. Finally, the analysis on system performances is simulated with some examples.