Synchronisation issue of supply chains: a six-sigma constrained random search approach

Abstract

Supply Chains (SC) can be viewed as a network of facilities or companies in which an order will flow through various business processes and ultimately reach the customer on time. In such networks, end-to-end material and information flows are optimally and collaboratively managed to create value for the customer and other stakeholders. The delivery performance of such networks can be optimised by pushing the workflow through the system in a way that there is a high probability of final products reaching the end user in specified delivery window. This paper addresses the problem of synchronisation of the business processes in a supply chain with the objective of minimising the total cost involved. A mathematical formulation of the problem is developed to relate the costs involved and the tolerances gained. A Genetic Algorithm (GA)-based heuristic is proposed to achieve the near optimal solution of the problem.