Title: Presenting a model for decoupling points in supply chain networks

Authors: Alireza Alinezhad; Abolfazl Kazemi; Mojgan Khorasani

Addresses: Faculty of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering, Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran ' Faculty of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering, Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran ' Faculty of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering, Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran

Abstract: The decoupling point (DP) is gaining attention as a significant factor in design and management of supply chains. The DP divides the part of the supply chain oriented towards customer orders from the part which is based on forecast planning and it can be stated that DP separates production process from lean production system to agile system. So, we can use the advantages of both production systems. Position of the decoupling point is a key factor that influences the design and management of a supply chain. In this study, we describe determination of decoupling point as a multiobjective decision making (MODM) problem, and our objectives are minimisation of production cost and production delivery time and maximisation of customer satisfaction. We use NSGA II for determining Pareto optimal solution to extract some solution concepts. Finally, a numerical example is applied to validate applicability and feasibility of the proposed model and performance of the developed algorithm.

Keywords: decoupling points; lean and agile production system; make-to-order and make-to-stock strategies; MTO and MTS strategies; multi objective decision making; MODM; NSGA II.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2019.101161

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2019 Vol.33 No.3, pp.383 - 403

Received: 05 Jul 2016
Accepted: 06 Nov 2017
Published online: 26 Jul 2019 *

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