Modeling of Responsive Supply Chain

A guide to help readers meet the demands of an evolving competitive business environment, Modeling of Responsive Supply Chain outlines novel concepts and strategies for implementing a fully integrated system of business improvement methodologies.

This self-contained reference covers various key aspects of supply chain management, which is crucial to boosting industrial growth in the face of expanding globalization in the manufacturing and transportation sectors. The book focuses on topics that could potentially improve the free flow of goods and services between nations by helping users assess the performance of logistic systems deployed to achieve this end.

Chapters present a conventional and evolutionary approach to coordinating all elements of the supply chain to optimize an enterprise’s competitive advantage. The authors explore different models associated with transportation, facility location, and assignments, as well as planning and scheduling. They also address diverse technologies, such as RFID tags used to monitor product flow within the supply chain network.

This book addresses the importance of:

• Recognizing responsiveness as a metric of supply chain performance
• Domain interfaces for solving the optimization problem by making supply chains more responsive
• Coordination through contracts to enhance responsiveness
• System dynamics methodology to achieve responsiveness, as well as management principles, control theory, and computer simulation
• The use of different types of technologies to build a better supply chain that achieves higher responsiveness

Few, if any, single volumes provide the detailed explanation of practical and conceptual approaches found in this book. It covers the entire spectrum of topics and will be equally useful as a reference for scholars and graduate students and as a compendium for practitioners dealing with real-life problems in contemporary supply chain management.

Biswajit Mahanty is currently professor and head of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at IIT Kharagpur. He has obtained his B.Tech (Hons) degree in Mechanical Engineering, and his M.Tech and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial Engineering and Management—all from IIT Kharagpur. To the present, Professor Mahanty has had a rich and varied professional career with over six years of industrial experience and about 22 years of teaching, research, and industrial consulting work experience. His areas of interest are system dynamics, operations research, information systems, and supply chain management.

Manoj Kumar Tiwari works in the area of computational intelligence and its applications in manufacturing and operations management. His contribution has also been focused to solve production planning and control problems on manufacturing. Tiwari also addresses issues and concerns related to supply chain management. He has published more than 162 papers in respected international journals and has more than 80 papers in several national and international conferences. He is listed among top 20 most productive authors in the area of production and operations management as reported in the last 50 years.

S.P. Sarmah obtained his Ph.D. degree from IIT Kharagpur, India and is currently working as an associate professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at IIT Kharagpur. Prior to teaching, he worked in industry for nearly four years. Dr. Sarmah’s present research interests are in the areas of supply chain coordination, supply chain risk management, reverse logistics, production planning and control, inventory management, and project management. He has published papers in several leading international journals.

Mamata Jenamani is currently working in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management as an associate professor. Before that she worked in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela. She is a Ph.D. from IIT Kharagpurt and Post Doctoral Research from Purdue University. In 2005, she won an Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Award in the category of Enterprise Applications of Internet Technology for her Ph.D. work. Her broad area of interest is information systems and e-business. Her current research interests include e-procurement, auctions, and application of information technology to supply chain systems.