Detecting disturbances in supply chains: the case of capacity constraints

Abstract

Purpose -The ability to detect disturbances quickly as they arise in a supply chain helps to manage them efficiently and effectively. This paper is aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of automatically, and therefore quickly detecting a specific disturbance, which is constrained capacity at a supply chain echelon.Design/Methodology/approach -Different supply chain echelons of a simulated four echelon supply chain were individually capacity constrained to assess their impacts on the profiles of system variables, and to develop a signature that related the profiles to the echelon location of the capacity constraint. A review of disturbance detection techniques across various domains formed the basis for considering the signature based technique.Findings -The signature for detecting a capacity constrained echelon was found to be based on cluster profiles of shipping and net inventory variables for that echelon as well as other echelons in a supply chain, where the variables are represented as spectra.Originality/value-Detection of disturbances in a supply chain including that of constrained capacity at an echelon has seen limited research where this study makes a contribution.

On the dynamics of closed-loop supply chains with capacity constraints

“…Contrarily, Spiegler and Naim (2014), via system dynamics show that capacity restrictions have a negative effect on both inventory and service customer levels, even if it emerges a positive impact on the 'backlash' effect (i.e., BWE on transportation). In line with most of the previous studies, Hussain et al (2016), using differential equations modelling, show that restrictions in the order size due to capacity limitation may avoid "phantom" large orders value, a similar conclusion to that by Shukla and Naim (2017) via system dynamics modelling. Finally, Framinan (2017) analytically demonstrates that if capacity refers to the rejection of orders in excess of a given threshold, then capacity dampens the BWE.…”

“…Capacity constraints usually refer to considering limits on the order sizes placed to suppliers, or limits on the orders' acceptance channel. In this regard, literature has shown that such interpretation of capacity can stabilize the orders and generate a smoothing effect on production (see e.g., Evans and Naim 1994, Chen and Lee 2012, Shukla and Naim 2017, Ponte et al 2017, Framinan 2017.…”

Capacity restrictions and supply chain performance: Modelling and analysing load-dependent lead times

“…Many studies in the supply chain field assume unconstrained production, distribution, and storage capacities, which can be interpreted more as a necessity than as an attempt to model real-world systems (Shukla and Naim, 2017). Although "one of the relevant features of the global enterprise business network is the constrained capacity of production plants and distribution centres" (Ciancimino and Cannella, 2009), some common techniques in this area -such as control engineering or stochastic analysis-present serious difficulties when dealing with nonlinearities (Grubbström and Wang, 2000;Riddalls and Bennett, 2002).…”

“…All in all, the aforementioned works highlight the significant impact of capacity constraints on the performance of supply chains, which cannot be ignored. In this sense, the overall system must be analyzed and these constraints must be detected (Shukla and Naim, 2017). Table 1 also underscores the fact that the majority of these studies (14 out of 16) consider the lead time to be an independent parameter.…”

“…In this sense, we consider the relationships between three different nodes of the supply chain. This approach allows us to gain a deep understanding on the dynamic behavior of the capacitated supply chain, and thus to derive more specific managerial implications (see e.g., Chen et al, 2000;Wang and Disney, 2016;Naim et al, 2017, among many others).…”