Nicolas Anich1 and Manuel Mateo1
1 Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, ETSEIB, Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
<EMAIL_ADDRESS><EMAIL_ADDRESS>Abstract. Nowadays, some companies have several plants as a result of acquisitions or mergers, i.e. horizontal integration. Another similar situation occurs for groups of companies which maintain the original brands but have centralized the manufacturing decisions. This leads to manufacturing the same, or nearly the same, product under different brands. Moreover, the set of suppliers becomes common to all the plants of the company or the pool of companies. It is necessary to analyse whether there is a better scenario in terms of minimum costs, according to the used resources. A methodology is applied to synergistic manufacturing in the chains. The considered case study is located in the automotive sector, using data from a group of companies with several brands.
Keywords: supply chain risk management, synergies, manufacturing.
1. Introduction
Supply Chain Management (SCM) involves all activities to meet the needs of the chain customers, considering processes such as procurement, manufacturing, warehousing, distribution and reverse logistics. Previously, all the links in a supply chain (SC) concerning those companies directly or indirectly involved in satisfying a customer request had to be defined. This is part of a broader concept called supply chain configuration or design ([1]).
However, the design of these chains must be subject to the definitions of each business. This will influence the strategies, configuration typologies and associated risks, as well as their evaluation in terms of efficiency and effectiveness [2]. A network must adapt not only to changes in demand but also to a set of governmental, meteorological and geological situations. This results in a set of risks.
The great dilemma that arises is how to reach the optimal trade-off in the capacity necessary to maintain a sustainable advantage, without having a high degree of complexity. Moreover, the different agents in a chain must be aligned with the objectives and there must be a high degree of collaboration between them [3].
Complexity, both in static and dynamic terms, implies structure, topology and links. It must provide enough flexibility in case of risks. One solution that can be developed in the chain is a synergistic configuration, to mitigate risks and operate efficiently. This has been of great interest in the Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM), whose purpose is to improve efficiency and effectiveness ([4]).
Most of the works on supply chain design, especially those related to risks, confront problems in a single chain. However, there is little research on the impact of risks in multi-business chains and, especially, in synergistic chains and their configurations.
2. Methodology for Synergic Supply Chains considering manufacture. Application in the car manufacturing
A general methodology for the redesign of SC risk manage