Supply Chain Management and Advanced Planning

Supply Chain Management concerns organizational aspects of integrating legally separated firms as well as coordinating materials and information flows within a production-distribution network. The Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) systems being used for transaction handling and order execution in most firms today have been supplemented by Advanced Planning Systems (APS) for coordinating flows, exploiting bottlenecks and keeping due dates. Various optimization techniques can be applied by APS to improve plans according to business targets. This book provides insights regarding the concepts underlying APS. Special emphasis is given to modelling supply chains and implementing APS in industry successfully. Understanding is enhanced through the use of case studies as well as an introduction to the solution algorithms used. The second edition contains a considerable quantity of new material, especially a novel chapter on collaborative planning.