Supply chain network design under uncertainty with new insights from contracts

Abstract

In this paper, the classical problem of supply chain network design is reconsidered to emphasize the role of contracts in uncertain environments. The supply chain addressed consists of four layers: suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, and customers acting within a single period. The single owner of the manufacturing plants signs a contract with each of the suppliers to satisfy demand from downstream. Available contracts consist of long-term and option contracts, and unmet demand is satisfied by purchasing from the spot market. In this supply chain, customer demand, supplier capacity, plants and warehouses, transportation costs, and spot prices are uncertain. Two models are proposed here: a risk-neutral two-stage stochastic model and a risk-averse model that considers risk measures. A solution strategy based on sample average approximation is then proposed to handle large scale problems. Extensive computational studies prove the important role of contracts in the design process, especially a portfolio of contracts. For instance, we show that long-term contract alone has similar impacts to having no contracts, and that option contract alone gives inferior results to a combination of option and long-term contracts. We also show that the proposed solution methodology is able to obtain good quality solutions for large scale problems.