Management Research in Iran

Abstract In today’s dynamic and competitive markets, industries and services require the methods, which can overcome the environmental challenges, and provide non-wasting production and services to the customers. Such tools can be achieved through pure production method. Therefore, by studying the literature review of pure production models in the supply chain, 14 major identification factors were identified in the form of a questionnaire presented to the experts and managers of automobile industry supply chain in order to specify the relationship and sequence of these factors through ISM method, and then confirm using path analysis technique. In this regard, these factors were located at five levels. The first level includes wasting and contentment of client; the second level is related to source control and continuous improvement; the third one involves the structure of material flow, supplying development and selection; the fourth level consists of educating and empowering, contacting with client and supplier and information flow structure; and the fifth level includes management behavior, methods and staffskills. The order of factors has helped the managers that if they implement these factors for the improvement of production methods and approaching to a pure production, from which factor they would initiate.    

Abstract Supply chain (SC) management aims to increase the overall profit through improvement of various activities and components. Many contradictions between parts and different levels of a SC have been identified in order to achieve overall objectives. Such shortfalls may result in decreased strength and competitiveness of the SC. The basics of game theory make it a suitable and reliable tool for solving contradiction situations by considering all levels and players goal. For Solving the problem mentioned above, game theory approach besides coordination mechanism are performed in this research. First of all an unlimited three echelon supply chain including S suppliers, M manufacturers and K retailers are considered. For this matter, a mathematical cooperative model based on specific assumptions is proposed. The model was performed in a numerical example and it is solved by genetic algorithm. The sensitivity analysis of proposed model was analyzed by design of experiment and finally the verification of the cooperative model is assessed by simulation and Arena software.

Abstract Nowadays, many organizations face with increasing competition and uncertainty environment, supported by innovating technologies and the changing needs of customers. In this environment, past methods in supply chain loose their ability. One efficient method in this regard is agility. Thus, for modeling the agility of supply chain, a wide range of research was done in the literature. The results of this research and interview by experts found 11 critical success factors of agile supply chain. Then these factors were entered into a questionnaire and the experts of Zobahan Co Supply Chain were asked to fill in it. The obtained results were analyzed by interpretive structural modeling and the Correlations between those factors were determined. The attained correlations indicated that development of the employees’ skills, employment of IT and programming are the basics of agility in supply chain. This model would help the supply chain managers in strategic planning for improving the agility of supply chain.

Abstract One of the most important permanence factors in today’s competition environment is decreasing of the cost of the products. Selecting the appropriate suppliers can significantly reduce the purchasing cost and increase organization competitiveness. It is due to the fact that in most industries, the cost of raw material and component parts includes the main cost of a product. The aim of this paper was to introduce a fuzzy decision making approach for supplier selection problems in supply chain. Most of such decisions are unstructured and many of the performance criteria such as quality, cost, flexibility and delivery time to determine the best supplier should be considered. In this paper, verbal variables were used for evaluation and determination of the performance of supplier under each criterion and determination of the weight of the criteria. Verbal variables were described by means of the triangular and trapezoid fuzzy numbers. Furthermore, the priority and the rank of suppliers by fuzzy multi-criteria decision making were determined. Finally, an example was presented to the process of decision making.

Abstract Inventories exist throughout the supply chain in various forms for various reasons. Since carrying these inventories can annually cost from 20 to 40% of their value, managing them in a scientific manner to maintain minimal levels makes economic sense. This paper presents a near-optimal (s, Q)-type inventory policy for a multi -echelon production /distribution network with multiple non - identical suppliers. The model is a synthesis of three components: (i) the inventory analysis at the retailers, (ii) the demand process at the warehouse, and (iii) the inventory analysis at the warehouse. The key contribution of the model is the seamless integration of the three components to analyze simple supply chains. The decisions in the model were made through a comprehensive distribution-based cost framework that includes the inventory, transportation and transit components of the supply chain.

Abstract Among flows in every supply chain (finance, information, and material), material flow according to its part in product cost is very important. Many studies in the field of material flow showed that material flows are often single level. This study offers a comprehensive model for appropriate order assignment in different levels of supply chain according to minimizing related cost to with genetic algorithm method. Results based on genetic algorithm is compared to other common pattern search methods such as Latin Hypercub and Mead-Nelder. The evidence shows that genetic algorithm method is the best method among other methods.