Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you will be able to: 1. 2. 3. 4. Understand the role of Network Design in a supply chain Identify factors influencing supply chain network design decisions Develop a framework for making network design decisions Use optimization for facility location & capacity allocation decisions
Capacity allocation decisions also have a significant impact on supply chain performance.
Allocating too much capacity to a location results in poor utilization, and as a result higher costs. Allocating too little to a location results in poor responsiveness if demand is not satisfied, or high cost if demand is filled from a distant facility
Infrastructure Factors: The availability of good infrastructure is an important prerequisite to locating a facility in a given area. Poor infrastructure adds to the cost of doing business from a given location. Key infrastructure elements includes availability of sites, labor availability, proximity to transportation terminals, rail service, airports, and seaports, highway access, & local utilities. Competitive Factors: Companies must consider competitors strategy, size, and location when designing their supply chain network. A fundamental decision firms make is whether to locate their facilities close to competitors or far from them.
Managers must identify competitors in each region and make a case for whether facility needs to be located close to or far from a competitors facility. Phase III: Select A Set of Desirable Potential Sites The objective of Phase III is to select a set of desirable potential sites within each region where facilities are located. Sites should be selected based on an analysis of infrastructure availability to support the desired production methodologies. Hard infrastructure requirements include the availability of supplier, transportation services, communication, utilities, & warehousing infrastructure. Soft infrastructure requirement includes the availability of skilled workforce, workforce turnover, and the community receptivity to business & industry.
In the next section we discuss the methodologies for making facility location & capacity allocation decisions during Phase II to IV.
In both cases the goal is to maximize the profit while satisfying customer needs. The following information ideally is available in making the design decisions;
Location of supply sources & markets Location of potential facility sites Demand forecast by market Facility, labor, & material costs by site Transportation costs between each pair of sites Inventory costs by site & as a function of quantity Sale price of product in different regions Taxes & tariffs Desired response time & other service factors
Given this information, either gravity models or network optimization modes may be used to design the network. We organize the models according to the phase of the network design framework at which each model is likely to be useful.
2. An IT system contains high performance optimization technologies, which deliver a high-quality solution for large problems in a reasonable amount of time.
Although Excels solver can be upgraded, there are many cases in which the size & complexity of the optimization require a more sophisticated system that a network design application can provide.
4. Finally, network design applications are structured to interface easily with the planning & operational software used by firms, which contains much of the actual data required for network design.
The ease of interfacing with the data source speeds up the creation & solution of a network design model.
Network design decisions are strategic and involve many factors that are hard to quantify. When using a design tool, it is easy to fall into the trap of allowing the application to make the decision based only on aspects that are quantifiable.
Important factors such as culture, quality-of-life issues, and cost of coordinate that are hard for IT to handle can be significant in making network design decision. Thus, relevant non-quantifiable factors should be included with the output of IT systems when making network design decisions.
4.
THANKS