The Coordinating Operation And Application Of Supply Chain Under Uncertain Conditions

In the face of fierce global competition and soaring customer expectations, many companies have turned to supply chain management to gain competitive dominance. Supply chains are complex networks consisting of suppliers, manufacturers , retailers and other enterprises, with the flow of logistics, finance and information. There are many various uncertainties in the practical operations of supply chain, which have bad effects on the supply chain performance. Supply chain management has become the most challenging field in both theories and applications for researchers and managers. Some researches are made on the coordinated operations of supply chain under uncertainties in this paper, and the main contents of this paper are as follows:First, in order to better understand supply chain management, the concepts of supply chain and supply chain management, the classifications of supply chain, and the principles and benefits of supply chain management are illuminated. The relations between supply chain management and logistics are compared and analyzed. The development of logistics and supply chain management in China are analyzed. Then the researches on supply chain management in uncertain environments are illuminated, and some domestic and foreign literatures are reviewed.Second, the targets and importance of supply chain coordination are discussed, and the coordinated strategies of inventories and information during the operations of supply chain are especially given main focus on. The complex supply chain networks which possess the characteristics of small-world networks and scale-free networks are analyzed. The uncertainties in the operation of supply chain and its bad effects are also discussed. The spread and control of uncertainties are analyzed, and the results show that the information sharing, supply chain simplification and shorter lead time can effectively control and eliminate the uncertainties.Third, the development of vendor management inventory (VMI) which is proved to be a better strategy for the coordinated operation of supply chain under uncertainties is analyzed, and the applications of VMI between different companies in and abroad are also illuminated. The motivations, requirements and specific implementation of VMI are discussed. The changes of total inventory and order cost of the supplier and the retailer, and the change of total supply chain inventory and order cost before and after the implementation of VMI are analyzed through a model.Fourth, the concept, steps and importance of supply chain performance evaluation are analyzed. A performance evaluation index system is established according to the principles, and the ways of quantifying and standardizing indexes are given. The performance evaluation of supply chain coordination is achieved using the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP).Last, the way and effect of VMI implementation are demonstrated by a practical VMI case between P&G and Wellcome. A numerical example on the performance evaluation of supply chain coordination using FAHP method is presented for analyzing the process and effect. At last the results of this paper are summarized, and some problems for further research are presented.