supply chain planning

Global trade of finished goods as well as global sourcing of components and raw material is increasing. As a consequence, multinational corporations need to be aware of the benefits and drawbacks of global procurement and production when designing their supply chain. Thereby, custom duties can be an important driver. In this context free trade agreements and their value-content requirements are gaining importance. In this article the mechanisms of free trade agreements and the opportunities and risks for supply chain management are presented. In addition to the qualitative description of the effects of free trade agreements on the supply chain structure, an illustrative example based on the automotive industry is provided. The article concludes with an outlook on potential solution strategies.

The article deals with the topic of demand and capacity management in inter-organizational production networks. It addresses the question how firms can coordinate build-up as well as reduction of the capacities of their production resources. For this purpose a decentralized negotiation-based coordination mechanism is presented. By this production networks are enabled to synchronize their capacities without the help of a central coordinator. The coordinating effect of the proposed decentralized planning approach was proven also in comparison to existing centralized network planning methods.