Title: Using optimisation and simulation technology to apply marketing-oriented concept for managing a supply chain

Authors: Tzong-Ru Lee, Chung-Chieh Wu

Addresses: Department of Marketing, Institute of Electronic Commerce, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan, ROC. ' Corporate Planning Division, No. 7, Daying Village, Xinshi Shiang, Tainan County 744, Taiwan, ROC

Abstract: This research is to investigate and solve problems existing in the supply chain of enterprises using customer-oriented marketing concept. To deal with the problems in the transportation of the supply chain, the optimisation technique is used to effectively reduce the transportation cost. To improve the service quality of the shopping centre in the supply chain, simulation software is applied to analyse where the bottlenecks exist in the customer purchase process. The findings serve as an important reference for the shopping centre in designing or planning its hardware equipment and manpower assignment. We also took into account the overall situation of the supply chain, conducting repeated analysis on the basis of customer satisfaction and once again simulated the assignment of resources in the shopping centre to find out the effective alternative which is customer-oriented and which can improve the performance of the supply chain of enterprises.

Keywords: supply chain management; SCM; customer-oriented marketing; optimisation; simulation; transportation; cost reduction; service quality; bottlenecks; customer purchasing; shopping centres; manpower assignment; customer satisfaction.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2007.011463

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2007 Vol.3 No.1, pp.95 - 110

Published online: 30 Nov 2006 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article