Protocols for sustainable collaboration in supply networks
Rodrigo Reyes Levalle, Manuel Scavarda, Hyesung Seok, Shimon Y. Nof · 2012
ABSTRACT: Industries with automated discrete production lines struggle with intrinsic process variability affected, among other factors, by the rules that coordinate interactions among machines. Similarly, increasing complexity to coordinate supply networks affects delivery performance, inventory levels across the network, and production facilities’ capacity leading to frequent product flow disruptions. Rules and protocols to enable coordination among the different parts of both production lines and supply networks are necessary to ensure long term stability and sustainability. A Collaborative Control Theory approach based on three of its principles is developed to the production line control problem, and a protocol for supply networks is proposed. A case study shows that Collaborative Production Line Control (CPLC) outperform traditional models, achieving a 43 % reduction in throughput variability, 24 % reduction in WIP, and a 0.5 % increase in service level.