Title: Design of synchronised supply chain: a genetic algorithm based six sigma constrained approach

Authors: Jiju Antony, Rahul Swarnkar, Maneesh Kumar, Manoj Kumar Tiwari

Addresses: Director, Centre for Research in Six Sigma and Process Improvement Strategy and Leadership, Caledonian Business School, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 0BA, UK. ' Research Student, Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, UK. ' Research Student, Centre for Research in Six Sigma and Process Improvement, Strategy and Leadership, Caledonian Business School, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 0BA, UK. ' Professor, Department of Manufacturing Engineering, National Institute of Foundry and Forge Technology, Ranchi-834 003, India

Abstract: Managing and optimising a supply chain requires an important link in the channel and synchronisation between its business partners. This paper suggests a methodology leading to the synchronisation of the business processes in a supply chain with the objective of minimising the total cost involved. The solution is constrained by a six sigma approach to ensure very high delivery probability within the customer specified delivery window. A mathematical formulation of the problem, inspired by its resemblance to the mechanical assembly tolerancing issues, is developed to relate the costs involved and the tolerances gained. A six sigma constrained Genetic Algorithm (GA) based heuristic is proposed to achieve the optimal solution of the problem. Computational experiments performed on ten randomly generated problems representing real life supply chains, reveal that the proposed GA based heuristic performs well with respect to solution accuracy and efficiency. Towards the end, a detailed analysis of the proposed approach to comprehend its usefulness as a decision-making tool is provided to aid the supply chain experts.

Keywords: genetic algorithms; GA; process capability; quality improvement; six sigma; supply chain management; SCM; supply chain synchronisation; assembly tolerancing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2006.009555

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2006 Vol.2 No.2, pp.120 - 141

Published online: 21 Apr 2006 *

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