A Corporate Supply Optimizer with Flow Network

Authors

1 Department of Engineering,Sharif University of Technology

2 School of Business,Sharif University of Technology

3 Department of Computer Science and Engineering,Amirkabir University of Technology

Abstract

A holding or a multi-business corporate seeks to coordinate its supply for minimum overall
costs. A Corporate Supply Optimizer (CSO), as a central entity taking advantage of the notion of
ow
networks, gathers necessary operational information from members of the corporate supply chain. The
CSO then guides supply chain members on ordering decisions for a minimum overall cost for the entire
supply chain. Its computational engine models the entire supply chain with multiple members in four
stages to satisfy customer demand. The CSO seeks a solution with minimum total costs, unlike noncooperative
supply chains where individual members compete to optimize their local costs. The existing
literature stays with restrictive assumptions on the number of supply chain stages, disallowing a case of
multiple products. Simulation results indicate an approximately 26% reduction in total costs of the supply
chain utilizing the CSO.

Keywords