Journal of Supply Chain Management Systems

Mahdi Alinaghian ¹, Hamed Amanipour ¹, Erfan Babaee Tirkolaee ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, IR

Abstract

A cross dock is the consolidation point in a distribution network, where multiple smaller shipments can be merged to full truck loads in order to realise economies in transportation. The focus of this study is to evaluate the possibility of considering inventory management structures in order to enhance the quality of solutions achieved by the classical VRP-Cross Dock (VRPCD) modeling. A mixed-integer programming is taken into account for locating cross docks and allocating Pickup and Delivery Nodes to them by considering each node's time window in order to minimise the total transportation costs and inventory holding costs inside each cross dock which is the objective function of the modeling. "Direct Shipment" is used to attach Delivery and Pick-up nodes to cross dock facilities. Determining the necessity and amount of goods transshipment among cross docks is a key point in this modeling which causes a Semi-VMI behaviour by considering cross dock facilities as the coordinator base of the distribution network. The enhancement of the solutions by adding the ability of transshipment between cross docks is proved. Locating cross dock facilities (Strategic decision) while considering other technical issues (Operational decisions) is one of the major contributions of this study.

Keywords

Cross Docking, Inventory Management, Transportation, Mixed-Integer Programming, Facility Location Allocation.

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Hamed Amanipour ¹, Aboozar Jamshidvand ², Mohammad Tabatabaei ³

Affiliations
1 Isfahan University of Technology, Industrial and Systems Engineering Department, Isfahan, IR
2 Science and Research Branch of Islamic Azad University, Tehran, IR
3 Malek Ashtar University of Technology, Industrial Engineering Department, Tehran, IR

Abstract

"Supply Chain Quality Management" has attained so much focus through the evolution of the product's quality realisation methods. The essence of this methodology is to have a system- based outlook to the product's quality phenomena. Three key components of activities defined in SCQM are "Upstream Quality Management", "Inter-organizational Quality Practices", and "Downstream Quality Practices". While suppliers are considered as the input providers through the supply chain, Supplier Quality Management is considered as the core activity in this methodology. A comprehensive review of papers and industrial and military SQM manuals made it possible to propose a novel classification in this area which is based on defining four interrelated fields of study. This article has been divided into three parts which are: 1.academic, military, and industrial literature review: firstly, by reviewing academically literature, three different fields of studies were reviewed as: (i) supplier selection methods, (ii) supplier performance monitoring, and (iii) supplier relationship management. Next, some of the novel industrial and military supplier quality management approaches have been reviewed. 2. defining selection/assessment criteria and KPIS in seven possible areas of outsourcing, and finally 3. conclusion which proposes a clear and detailed research direction by which the reader can find a good vision of the applicability of subjects analyzed in this study and the reason we have got so far into the SQM concept.

Keywords

Supply Chain Quality Management, Supplier Quality Management, Upstream Quality Management.

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