Title: Unbalanced supply chain design using the analytic network process and a hybrid heuristic-based algorithm with balance modulating mechanism

Authors: Z.H. Che, Zhihua Cui

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, 1, Sec. 3, Chung-Hsiao E. Rd., Taipei 10608, Taiwan. ' School of Computer Science and Technology, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan, Shanxi 030024, China

Abstract: In this study, an optimisation mathematical model is developed for presenting the supply chain design problem which is based on a single-product and multi-echelon unbalanced system, and considering four criteria, including cost, quality, delivery time and partner relationship management (PRM), as well as decision factors such as quantity discount and capacity limits. To extract critical factors of PRM evaluation and estimate relative weight among the criteria, the analytic network process (ANP) is utilised. In addition, we propose a heuristic-based approach, called GP-TBM, based on a hybrid of the genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm by introducing the balance modulating (BM) mechanism to solving the mathematical model to find the optimal supply chain network pattern. In the GP-TBM, the parameters are designed by the Taguchi method. Finally, a case of a {4-3-3-3} supply chain network structure is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, and GP-TBM compared with standard PSO and GA. The empirical analysis results demonstrate GP-TBM is superior to standard PSO and GA in the proposed supply chain planning problems.

Keywords: supply chain design; partner relationship management; PRM; Taguchi methods; analytical network process; ANP; particle swarm optimisation; PSO; mathematical modelling; genetic algorithms; GAs; balance modulating; supply chain management; SCM; supply chain networks; network structures; supply chain planning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIC.2011.038703

International Journal of Bio-Inspired Computation, 2011 Vol.3 No.1, pp.56 - 66

Received: 15 Jul 2010
Accepted: 16 Jul 2010
Published online: 12 Nov 2014 *

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