Title: Design of fractal information coordination system in a supply chain network

Authors: Navin K. Dev; Ravi Shankar

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical College, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Dayalbagh, Agra – 282005, India. ' Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Vishwakarma Building, Shaheed Jeet Singh Marg, New Delhi – 110016, India

Abstract: The rapid advancement in communication technology, coupled with spiralling customer expectations, are increasingly forcing business enterprises to seek inter-organisational coordination for smooth material and informational flow across the total supply chain justifiably. Therefore, given the inherent uncertainties pervading the operational environment within real-world supply chains, it becomes imperative for each partnering echelon to focus on individual information requirements from a viewpoint of global optimisation of overall SC performance. This information could manifest from 1) downstream echelons; 2) upstream partners; 3) a (hybrid) combination of both 1 and 2 above. From the perspective of a specific SC echelon then, we compare the above operating regimes using the performance measures: average inventory levels, average cycle times, average fill rates and average number of times lots are ordered. In this paper, the coordination among supply chain echelons is viewed from fractal factory theory perspective.

Keywords: information sharing; fractal information; supply chain coordination; supply chain networks; discrete event simulation; operations management; supply chain management; SCM; fractal factory; inventory levels; cycle times; fill rates; lot ordering.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2012.046672

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2012 Vol.12 No.1, pp.1 - 19

Published online: 23 Aug 2014 *

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