Achieving Sharp Deliveries in Supply Chains through Variance Pool Allocation

Variability reduction and business process synchronization are acknowledged as key to achieving sharp and timely deliveries in supply chain networks. In this paper, we develop an approach that facilitates variability reduction and business process synchronization for supply chains in a cost effective way. The approach developed is founded on an analogy between mechanical design tolerancing and supply chain lead time compression. We first present a motivating example to describe this analogy. Next, we define, using process capability indices, a new index of delivery performance called delivery sharpness which, when used with the classical performance index delivery probability, measures the accuracy as well as the precision with which products are delivered to the customers. Following this, we solve the following specific problem: how do we compute the allowable variability in lead time for individual stages of the supply chain so that specified levels of delivery sharpness and de...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2002
• Where: ICRA
• Authors: Dinesh Garg, Yadati Narahari, Nukala Viswanadham
• Keywords: ICRA 2002, Robotics, Supply Chain, Supply Chain Partners, VPA Problem