Hierarchical clustering for structuring supply chain network in case of product variety

作者：Daie Pooya; Li Simon^*

来源：Journal of Manufacturing Systems, 2016, 38: 77-86.

DOI：10.1016/j.jmsy.2015.10.002

• Supply chain network
• Hierarchical clustering
• Modular design
• Coupling analysis
• Postponement

To compete in the market, manufacturers often need to offer multiple product variants to different customers. Given such a challenge of product variety to supply chain, the postponement strategy has been adapted that the differentiating modules are handled at the later stage of the process to minimize the impacts from demand variations. Given the information of product variants and their mix ratios, this paper focuses on the problem of structuring supply chain network that indicates the precedence orders of suppliers and sub-assemblers. The solution approach is based on hierarchical clustering, in which the tree structure is applied to construct the supply chain network. One core technique is to investigate the coupling values between the modules by characterizing the grouping condition the structuring process. A complexity measure is also adopted to compare the quality of resulting supply chain networks. Five numerical examples are utilized to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed clustering method.

• 出版日期2016-1