Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.53, No.10, 3996-4007, 2014
Hybrid Simulation Based Optimization Framework for Centralized and Decentralized Supply Chains
A chemical supply chain is a network of suppliers, production facilities, warehouses, and markets designed to acquire raw materials and manufacture, store, and distribute products among the markets. The individual entities in such a network have their own goals and objectives. Usually the different units belong to different organizations and are parts of more than just one supply chain. The different processes of the supply chain are distributed depending on the structure of the network and the integration of these units. In this work, we investigate how the supply chains behave under different network structures and decision-making policies. Hybrid simulation based optimization frameworks have been used to predict the optimal operation under the different scenarios.