The impact of digitalisation and Industry 4.0 on the ripple effect and disruption risk control analytics in the supply chain (SC) is studied. The research framework combines the results from two is...

The impact of digital technology and Industry 4.0 on the ripple effect and supply chain risk analytics

Research in closed-loop supply chains (CLSCs) has grown rapidly over the last 10 years. The authors offer a critical review of influential CLSC research that takes a business economics perspective. Much of the research was inspired by practice-driven thoughtpieces, and this helped to keep research focused on relevant issues. However, CLSC research has several assumptions, such as perfect substitution between new and remanufactured products that risk becoming institutionalized. There is a strong need to carefully examine current industrial practice so that research remains focused on relevant problems. Deeper understanding of consumer perceptions of remanufactured products, product diffusion, and valuation of returned products are needed for the field to continue to add insights into developing sustainable economies.

Production and Operations Management

Driven by new laws and regulations concerning the emission of greenhouse gases, carriers are starting to use electric vehicles for last-mile deliveries. The limited battery capacities of these vehicles necessitate visits to recharging stations during delivery tours of industry-typical length, which have to be considered in the route planning to avoid inefficient vehicle routes with long detours. We introduce the electric vehicle-routing problem with time windows and recharging stations E-VRPTW, which incorporates the possibility of recharging at any of the available stations using an appropriate recharging scheme. Furthermore, we consider limited vehicle freight capacities as well as customer time windows, which are the most important constraints in real-world logistics applications. As a solution method, we present a hybrid heuristic that combines a variable neighborhood search algorithm with a tabu search heuristic. Tests performed on newly designed instances for the E-VRPTW as well as on benchmark instances of related problems demonstrate the high performance of the heuristic proposed as well as the positive effect of the hybridization.

The Electric Vehicle-Routing Problem with Time Windows and Recharging Stations

Economic systems are increasingly prone to complexity and uncertainty. Therefore, making well-informed decisions requires risk analysis, control and mitigation. In some areas such as finance, insurance, crisis management and health care, the importance of considering risk is largely acknowledged and well-elaborated, yet rather heterogeneous concepts and approaches for risk management have been developed. The increased frequency and the severe consequences of past supply chain disruptions have resulted in an increasing interest in risk. This development has led to the adoption of the risk concepts, terminologies and methods from related fields. In this paper, existing approaches for quantitative supply chain risk management are reviewed by setting the focus on the definition of supply chain risk and related concepts.

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A critical review on supply chain risk – Definition, measure and modeling ☆

Supply chain resilience (SCR) manifests when the network is capable to withstand, adapt, and recover from disruptions to meet customer demand and ensure performance. This paper conceptualizes and comprehensively presents a systematic review of the recent literature on quantitative modeling the SCR while distinctively pertaining it to the original concept of resilience capacity. Decision-makers and researchers can benefit from our survey since it introduces a structured analysis and recommendations as to which quantitative methods can be used at different levels of capacity resilience. Finally, the gaps and limitations of existing SCR literature are identified and future research opportunities are suggested.

Review of quantitative methods for supply chain resilience analysis

We review the OR/MS literature on supply chain disruptions in order to take stock of the research to date and to provide an overview of the research questions that have been addressed. We first place disruptions in the context of other forms of supply uncertainty and discuss common modeling approaches. We then discuss nearly 150 scholarly works on the topic, organized into six categories: evaluating supply disruptions; strategic decisions; sourcing decisions; contracts and incentives; inventory; and facility location. We conclude with a discussion of future research directions.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm?abstractid=1689882

OR/MS Models for Supply Chain Disruptions: A Review

We review the Operations Research/Management Science (OR/MS) literature on supply chain disruptions in order to take stock of the research to date and to provide an overview of the research questio...

OR/MS models for supply chain disruptions: a review

Electric vehicles (EVs) have been proposed as a key technology to help cut down the massive greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. Unfortunately, because of the limited capacity of batteries, typical EVs can only travel for about 100 miles on a single charge and require hours to be recharged. The industry has proposed a novel solution centered around the use of “swapping stations,” at which depleted batteries can be exchanged for recharged ones in the middle of long trips. The possible success of this solution hinges on the ability of the charging service provider to deploy a cost-effective infrastructure network, given only limited information regarding adoption rates. We develop robust optimization models that aid the planning process for deploying battery-swapping infrastructure. Using these models, we study the potential impacts of battery standardization and technology advancements on the optimal infrastructure deployment strategy. This paper was accepted by Dimitris Bertsimas, opti...

Infrastructure Planning for Electric Vehicles with Battery Swapping

Emerging collaborative consumption business models have shown promise in terms of both generating business opportunities and enhancing the efficient use of resources. In the transportation domain, car-sharing models are being adopted on a mass scale in major metropolitan areas worldwide. This mode of servicized mobility bridges the resource efficiency of public transit and the flexibility of personal transportation. Beyond the significant potential to reduce car ownership, car sharing shows promise in supporting the adoption of fuel-efficient vehicles, such as electric vehicles (EVs), because of these vehicles’ special cost structure with high purchase but low operating costs. Recently, key players in the car-sharing business, such as Autolib’, car2go, and DriveNow, have begun to employ EVs in an operations model that accommodates one-way trips. On the one hand (and particularly in free-floating car sharing), the one-way model results in significant improvements in coverage of travel needs and therefore i...

/pdf/service-region-design-for-urban-electric-vehicle-sharing-472aklqsfh.pdf

Service Region Design for Urban Electric Vehicle Sharing Systems

The transportation sector is a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As a step toward a greener environment, solutions involving electric vehicles (EVs) have been proposed and discussed. When powered by electricity from efficient and environmentally-friendly generators, EVs have significantly lower per-mile running costs compared to gasoline cars, while generating lower emissions. Unfortunately, due to the limited capacity of batteries, typical EVs can only travel for about 100 miles on a single charge. Because recharging takes several hours, it is impossible to recharge an EV in the middle of a long (round) trip exceeding 100 miles. Better Place (BP), a start-up based in Palo Alto, CA, proposed a novel strategy that potentially overcomes the recharging problem. In the plan, in addition to charging adaptors at homes, work places and shopping malls, "swapping stations'', at which depleted batteries can be exchanged for recharged ones in the middle of long trips, will be located at strategic locations along freeways. With its battery swapping equipment, BP has demonstrated how to effectively refuel an EV in less than two minutes. The possible success of EV solutions based on the idea of battery swapping hinges on the ability of the charging service provider (BP or other similar firms) to deploy a cost-effective infrastructure network with comprehensive coverage. Unfortunately, since the adoption rate of electric vehicles, and thus demand for swapping service, is still highly uncertain, the service provider must make deployment plans with incomplete information on hand. In this paper, we develop models that aid the planning process for deploying battery swapping infrastructure, based on a robust optimization framework. We further show that our models can be tightly approximated by mixed-integer second-order cone programs (MISOCPs), which are readily solvable by commercial solvers. Using these models, we demonstrate the potential impacts of battery standardization and various technology advancements on the optimal infrastructure deployment strategy.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2119806_code1806967.pdf?abstractid=2022651&mirid=5

Ying Rong

Papers

OR/MS Models for Supply Chain Disruptions: A Review

OR/MS models for supply chain disruptions: a review

Infrastructure Planning for Electric Vehicles with Battery Swapping

Service Region Design for Urban Electric Vehicle Sharing Systems

Infrastructure Planning for Electric Vehicles with Battery Swapping