Information visibility and its effect on supply chain dynamics

Supply chains are nonlinear dynamic systems, the control of which is complicated by long, variable delays in product and information flows. In this thesis, we present a novel framework for improving the visibility of information in supply chains by reducing the delays in information flow. We first analyze the growth and evolution of production and operations management software over the past three decades, and the current trends in their development, coupled with recent advances in radio frequency technology, wireless communications, data representation methods, and the internet. Information visibility is identified as one of the key elements for successful implementation of any such software. We analyze the dynamics of a supply chain under different scenarios of information visibility and forecasting decisions with the help of simulations. Possible improvements in supply chain costs are identified, provided information visibility. We propose a framework to achieve information visibility in the supply chain using radio frequency tags, tag readers, product identification codes, an object description language, and the internet.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2000

Author dc:creator

• Joshi, Yogesh V. (Yogesh Vijay), 1976-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Sanjay Sarma.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/9052

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/9052