| An extensive literature review indicates that an effective supply chain design calls for robust analytical models and design tools. The core competency of a manufacturing organization within a supply chain, which make it survive in a competitive market, is the product that it manufactures. Therefore, each decision and integration effort should be driven by the product, namely, product characteristics and product life cycle. One of the objectives of this dissertation is to develop a generic model framework of a Decision Support System based on product characteristics and product life cycle for supply chain design and evaluation decision-making.; Generally, products can be categorized into three types, namely, standard, innovative, and hybrid. Typically, supply chain can be classified into three categories: Lean Supply Chain (LSC), Agile Supply Chain (ASC), and Hybrid Supply Chain (HSC). The product life cycle can be classified into 4 discrete stages: introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model level I performance metrics are adopted in this research as the decision criteria for evaluating supply chain performance. It is presented that different product types at different stages of life cycle might need different supply chain strategies. Different supply chain strategies require different ratings for evaluation criteria.; A generic Decomposition-Synthesis approach with an integrated Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Preemptive Goal Programming (PGP) based multi-criteria decision making methodology is presented as a critical part of the framework for supplier/vendor selection problem. A performance metric, Overall Supplier Effectiveness from supplier-side model, is defined based on the developed performance metrics at component level, product level and company level.; A single index-like performance metric, which will aggregate performance measures from low level to high level of the Decision Support System, Overall Supply Chain Effectiveness, is initiated as a common base for evaluation of supply chain design efforts and comparison of different scenarios.; A case study is illustrated for an automotive manufacturer based on the developed model and solution methodology of the Decision Support System. The objectives of the company are to choose most favorable suppliers for the three outsourced components, namely, Electronics, Tires and Peripherals to meet the company's supplier selection criteria—SCOR Model Level I performance metrics, and to satisfy the company's production plan. A selfdeveloped prototype software tool, together with a commercially available software tool, is used to facilitate solving this problem.; In summary, the analysis of the results shows that the developed model and solution methodology of the Decision Support System can be used as an effective decision making tool for manufacturing supply chain design and evaluation.; Directions and recommendations for future research are provided. |
