A multi-stage supply chain network design problem with in-house production and partial product outsourcing

Today’s competitive business environment has resulted in increasing attention to social responsibilities and customer’s attitudes. Buying and returning have become a common practice for different reasons, including incompleteness or immature failure of the product or its failure to meet the customer’s satisfaction. Before the buying and returning cycle can be handled appropriately, companies need a proper logistics network designed following a proper design strategic. In the present research, a forward and reverse logistics network is proposed for product distribution and collection. The contribution of this paper to the literature is the proposal of a multi-period, multi-echelon, integrated forward and reverse supply chain network design problem with transportation mode selection considered. Different kinds of decisions including the determination of optimum number and locations of facilities, facilities opening time and transportation mode selection among different facilities have been considered in this paper. Due to multi-period nature of the problem, the problem is flexible for future periods. A new mixed integer nonlinear programming model was proposed for the introduced problem considering different levels of facility capacities with the maximum profit objective function. As another contribution, a genetic algorithm was developed to cope with problem’s complexity when the problem size goes large.

In the lack of historical data for an uncertain event, the belief degree-based uncertainty becomes more applicable than other types of uncertainty like fuzzy theory, stochastic programming, etc. This study focuses on an uncertain bi-objective two-stage supply chain network design problem. The problem consists of plants, depots, and customers with cost and environmental impacts (CO2 emission) where direct shipment between plants and customers is allowed. As such network could be designed for the first time in a geographical region, such problem is modeled in a belief degree-based uncertain environment. This is almost the first study on belief degree-based uncertain supply chain network design problem with environmental impacts and direct shipment. Three approaches of expected value model, chance-constrained model, and their combination are applied to convert the proposed uncertain problem to its crisp form. The obtained crisp forms are solved by two multi-objective optimization approaches of goal programming (GP) and global criterion method (GCM). An extensive computational study with various test problems is performed to study the performance of the crisp models and the solution approaches. As result, the obtained crisp formulations are highly sensitive to the changes in the cost parameters’ values, and the GP performs better than the GCM from the solution quality point of view.

The design of robust value-creating supply chain networks: A critical review

This study examines the effects of dynamic discounting based credit payment on a supply chain network design problem. Dynamic discounting based credit payment is a supply chain finance policy wherein the supplier provides a credit period to a distribution center (DC) with a discount applied if the DC pays the supplier before the end of the credit period. This study also considers the time value of money and applies discounted cash flows to formulate a model that determines the DC’s optimal replenishment cycle, selling price, and influence area while maximizing the present value of the total profit. The continuous approximation approach is applied to formulate a mathematical model of the problems, and an algorithm based on non-linear optimization is established to solve the problem. A numerical example and a sensitivity analysis are provided to present the proposed model and solution approach and to illustrate the effect of each cost on the decisions and profit.

ABSTRACTIn this study, the application of type-II fuzzy sets is addressed to design a multi-product, multi-level, multi-period supply chain networks. The proposed model provides integrated approach to make optimal decisions such as location–allocation, production, procurement and distribution subject to operational and tactical constraints. In the context of fuzzy linear programming, this study involves type-II fuzzy numbers for the right-hand side of constraints regarding three sources of uncertainty: demand, manufacturing and supply. According to fuzzy components considered, a type-II fuzzy mixed-integer linear programming is converted into an equivalent auxiliary crisp model using linear fuzzy type-reducer models. The final models are linear and the global optimum solutions can be achieved using commercial OR softwares. The contributions of this study are three folds: (1) introducing a new integrated supply chain network design problem; (2) considering a solution procedure based on type-II fuzzy sets and (3) presenting a linear fuzzy type-II reducer. Finally, the proposed model and solution approach are illustrated through a numerical example to demonstrate the significance.

A stochastic programming approach for supply chain network design under uncertainty

This article integrates the company operations decisions (i.e. location, production, inventory, distribution, and transportation) and finance decisions (i.e. cash, accounts payable and receivable, debt, securities, payment delays, and discounts) in which the demands and return rate are uncertain, defined by a set of scenarios. The cash flow and budgeting model will be coupled with supply chain network design using a mixed integer linear programming formulation. The article evaluates two financial criteria, that is, the change in equity and the profit as objective functions. The results indicate that objective functions are partially interdependent, that is, they conflict in certain parts. This fact illustrates the inadequacy of treating process operations and finances in isolated environments and pursuing objective myopic performance indicators such as profit or cost. Due to the importance of the supply chain network design problem, a multi-objective robust optimization with the max–min version is extended to cope with the uncertainty. A solution approach integrating Benders’ decomposition method with the scenario relaxation algorithm is also proposed in this research. The improved algorithm has been applied to solve a number of numerical experiments. All results illustrate significant improvement in computation time of the improved algorithm over existing approaches. For a problem, the proposed algorithm shows a significant reduction in computational time compared with the Benders’ decomposition and scenario relaxation that shows the efficiency of the proposed solution method.

A stochastic programming approach for supply chain network design under uncertainty

This article investigates how to simultaneously optimize both strategic and tactical decisions in the supply chain network design. For this purpose, a bi-level programming model is developed in which supply chain network design problem is considered as a strategic decision in the upper-level model, while the lower-level model contains the assembly line balancing as a tactical decision. In addition, the problem is extended to include push–pull strategy where decisions such as production amount and inventory level of each component in manufacturers are made. Based on the special structure of the model, a heuristic method is proposed to solve the developed bi-level model. A numerical example is employed to show the performance of proposed method in terms of feasibility and convergence. Finally, computational experiments on several problem instances are presented to demonstrate the applications of developed model and the solution method.

Hybrid adaptive simplified human learning optimization algorithms for supply chain network design problem with possibility of direct shipment

World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a pandemic On March 12, 2020. Up to January 13, 2022, 320,944,953 cases of infection and 5,539,160 deaths have been reported worldwide. COVID-19 has negatively impacted the blood supply chain by drastically reducing blood donation. Therefore, developing models to design effective blood supply chains in emergencies is essential. This research offers a novel multi-objective Transportation-Location-Inventory-Routing (TLIR) formulation for an emergency blood supply chain network design problem. We answer questions regarding strategic, operational, and tactical decisions considering disruption in the network and blood shelf-life. Since, in real-world applications, the parameters of the proposed mathematical formulation are uncertain, two flexible uncertain models are proposed to provide risk-averse and robust solutions for the problem. We applied the proposed formulations in a case study. Under various scenarios and realizations, we show that the offered robust model handles uncertainties more efficiently and finds solutions that have significantly lower costs and delivery time. To make a reliable conclusion, we performed extensive worst-case analyses to demonstrate the robustness of the results. In the end, we provide critical managerial insights to enhance the effectiveness of the supply chain.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10479-022-04673-9.

A supplier of products and services aims to minimize the capacity investment cost and the operational cost incurred by unwanted byproducts, e.g. carbon dioxide emission. In this paper, we consider a sustainable supply chain network design problem, where the capacity and the product flow along each link are design variables. We formulate it as a multi-criteria optimization problem. A bio-inspired algorithm is developed to tackle this problem. We illustrate how to design a sustainable supply chain network in three steps. First, we develop a generalized model inspired by the foraging behaviour of slime mould Physarum polycephalum to handle the network optimization with multiple sinks. Second, we propose a strategy to update the link cost iteratively, thus making the Physarum model to converge to a user equilibrium. Third, we perform an equivalent operation to transform a system optimum problem into a corresponding user equilibrium problem so that it is solvable in the Physarum model. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is illustrated with numerical examples.

The problem of network design of blood supply chains is traditionally studied considering a maximum of three objective functions. In the real world, however, there are always many conflicting objectives for different stakeholders. This paper addresses a blood supply chain (BSC) network design problem to optimize the costs of blood shortage and substitution in addition to other common objective functions. To this end, four important objectives that decision makers are always faced with in disaster are considered: (1) minimizing the total cost, (2) minimizing transportation time, (3) minimizing total unsatisfied demand, and (4) maximizing the total reliability. A mixed-integer linear programming (MIP) model is proposed to formulate the problem at hand. Since this problem is known to be strongly NP-hard, the intelligent NSGA-II algorithm is applied to solve it in a reasonable time. Data from a real case study is used to evaluate the performance of the proposed solution method. The comparison of the results of the proposed algorithm with the mathematical model confirms the accuracy of the proposed method. Furthermore, the analysis of the results indicates the superiority of the proposed model over previous studies. Moreover, the proposed algorithm provides a wide range of suitable solutions. Therefore, different alternatives are presented to the decision makers to make a trade-off according to their preferences.

In recent years, various kinds of carbon dioxide capture, utilization and storage supply chain network design (CCUS SCND) problems have been extensively studied by scholars from the supply chain management community and other fields. The existing works mainly focus on the various deterministic or uncertainty problems; few works consider the CCUS SCND resilience problem in the context of utilization/storage facility disruptions due to unexpected natural disasters or other geological anomaly events. This paper aims to study the CCUS SCND resilience problem under utilization/storage facility capacity disruption risk. We propose a stochastic mixed-integer linear programming model for the considered problem. In the considered problem, the main decisions related to the following areas are taken into account: supply chain design and planning; facility disruption risk handling, including the optimal determination of facility locations and the matching of carbon dioxide emission sources and utilization/storage facilities; carbon dioxide normal transportation planning; and transshipment planning for various disruption scenarios. Finally, an experimental study comprising a case study from China is conducted to validate the effectiveness and performance of our proposed model. The obtained results show that the supply chain networks for the case study obtained by our proposed model are efficient, cost-effective and resilient in mitigating various kinds of utilization/storage facility disruption scenarios, showing the model can be applied to large-scale CCUS projects to help managers effectively deal with disruption risks. Future research should consider multiple disruption events and propose multiple effective resilience strategies.

This study aims to investigate the closed-loop supply chain network design problem considering the environmental and responsiveness features. For this purpose, a multi-objective mathematical model is suggested that minimizes the carbon emissions and the total costs and maximizes the responsiveness of the system. Due to the dynamic space of the business environment, uncertainty is an integral part of the supply chain problem. Therefore, this research applies the robust possibilistic programming method to cope with uncertainty. Afterwards, since the research problem has a high level of the complexity, a hybrid solution approach based on a heuristic method and the meta-goal programming method is developed to solve the research problem in a reasonable time. Then, due to the importance of the ventilator device during the recent pandemic (COVID-19), this study considers this product as a case study. The main contribution of the current study is to design a green-responsive closed-loop supply chain network under uncertainty using a multi-objective robust possibilistic programming model, for the first time in the literature, especially in the medical devices industry. On the other side, the other contribution of this study is to develop an efficient hybrid solution method. The achieved results demonstrate the efficiency of the offered model and the developed hybrid method. Eventually, by carrying out sensitivity analysis, the impact of some of the critical parameters on the model is investigated. Based on the obtained results, an increase in the demand sizes leads to increasing the environmental damages and the total costs while reducing the responsiveness level. On the other side, an increase in the rate of return leads to an increase in all of the objective functions. Also, the achieved results show that when the capacity parameter is increased, the total costs are decreased, but the responsiveness and environmental impacts are increased.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-022-19105-1.