Recently, resolving the problem of evaluation and ranking the potential suppliers has become as a key strategic factor for business firms. With the development of intelligent and automated information systems in the information era, the need for more efficient decision making methods is growing. The VIKOR method was developed to solve multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) problems with conflicting and non-commensurable criteria assuming that compromising is acceptable to resolve conflicts. On the other side objective weights based on Shannon entropy concept could be used to regulate subjective weights assigned by decision makers or even taking into account the end-users' opinions. In this paper, we treat supplier selection as a group multiple criteria decision making (GMCDM) problem and obtain decision makers' opinions in the form of linguistic terms. Then, these linguistic terms are converted to trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. We extended the VIKOR method with a mechanism to extract and deploy objective weights based on Shannon entropy concept. The final result is obtained through next steps based on factors R, S and Q. A numerical example is proposed to illustrate an application of the proposed method.

A fuzzy VIKOR method for supplier selection based on entropy measure for objective weighting

A taxonomy of line balancing problems and their solutionapproaches

Review of inventory systems with deterioration since 2001

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Basic marketing, a managerial approach

This survey paper starts with a critical analysis of various performance metrics for supply chain management (SCM), used by a specific manufacturing company. Then it summarizes how economic theory treats multiple performance metrics. Actually, the paper proposes to deal with multiple metrics in SCM via the balanced scorecard — which measures customers, internal processes, innovations, and finance. To forecast how the values of these metrics will change — once a supply chain is redesigned — simulation may be used. This paper distinguishes four simulation types for SCM: (i) spreadsheet simulation, (ii) system dynamics, (iii) discrete-event simulation, and (iv) business games. These simulation types may explain the bullwhip effect, predict fill rate values, and educate and train users. Validation of simulation models requires sensitivity analysis; a statistical methodology is proposed. The paper concludes with suggestions for a possible research agenda in SCM. A list with 50 references for further study is included.

Performance metrics in supply chain management

Integrated inventory model for deteriorating items under a multi-echelon supply chain environment

Two-sided assembly lines balancing with assignment restrictions

An optimal batch size for integrated production–inventory policy in a supply chain

The aim of this paper is to develop an inventory model for deteriorating items with a shortage occurring at the supplier involving a supply chain between the producer and buyer. A numerical example is used to illustrate the model and demonstrate that integrated decisions are more cost-effective compared with independent decisions from the supplier, producer or buyer. The optimal number of deliveries is derived with the minimal joint total cost from the integrated viewpoint. This study compares cases with and without shortages. A sensitivity analysis is given to explore the effect from a supplier shortage.

Deteriorating item inventory model with shortage due to supplier in an integrated supply chain

One of the most important characteristics of reentrant production systems is that the products are manufactured layer-by-layer, so it is difficult to inspect some defects after they are covered by the next layer. This study proposes a genetic algorithm (GA) approach that is very suitable for solving the inspection allocation problem, because the codes used in the chromosome of the GA approach are exactly the same as the representation of the inspection allocation policy for workstations in the production system. Meanwhile, this study shows better performance than the researches done in the literature and is very much closer to the optimization method based on complete enumeration. In addition, a discussion regarding GA parameters is performed to suggest proper parameters used for various production systems. The result obtained in this study is highly practical, extensible and applicable, so it can serve as a production planning tool to solve the inspection allocation problem in reentrant production systems.

Hsin Rau

Papers

Integrated inventory model for deteriorating items under a multi-echelon supply chain environment

Two-sided assembly lines balancing with assignment restrictions

An optimal batch size for integrated production–inventory policy in a supply chain

Deteriorating item inventory model with shortage due to supplier in an integrated supply chain

Genetic algorithm modeling for the inspection allocation in reentrant production systems