Title: Robust supplier set selection for changing product architectures

Authors: Bhanumathi Tenneti, Venkat Allada

Addresses: 118 Fulton Hall, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65409, USA. ' 118 Fulton Hall, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65409, USA

Abstract: In today|s era of dynamic customer demands and rapidly evolving technologies, there is a need for manufacturers to understand the implications of continually changing product architectures on their supply chain. This study proposes a methodology based on Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) for robust supplier selection to effectively cater to varying product architectures at minimum total acquisition costs. Taguchi|s quality loss concept is used to evaluate how well the individual components/subassemblies supplied by the suppliers cost-effectively meet the customer needs over a given planning horizon. The proposed methodology is demonstrated using an example of a cell phone product family.

Keywords: supplier selection; product architectures; Taguchi methods; quality loss; ant colony optimisation; ACO; supply chain management; SCM; cell phones; mobile phones; product families.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.2008.018157

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 2008 Vol.31 No.3/4, pp.197 - 214

Published online: 05 May 2008 *

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