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Balancing Effort and Plan Quality: Tactical Supply Chain Planning in the Chemical Industry

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Operations Research Proceedings 2016

Part of the book series: Operations Research Proceedings ((ORP))

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Abstract

Tactical supply chain planning in the chemical industry is a frequently recurring task, which typically involves not only automated planning procedures but also manual planning efforts. Competent application of optimization techniques in this context requires specialized skills and method-related knowledge. However, planners might have a background in overseeing production or comparable functions and personnel with expertise in optimization is scarce. Common simple heuristic planning approaches provided by ERP-systems do not even consider capacity constraints. This leads to considerable amounts of manual planning efforts. Still, for complex supply chains the resulting plans likely lack in quality. Available advanced heuristics can produce better plans but at the same time require expertise and maintenance efforts comparable to optimization based approaches. We introduce a concept of quality of supply network plans and investigate the potential for achieving balance between effort and plan quality by incorporating certain dimensions of quality in application friendly planning heuristics.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. FZI Research Center for Information Technology, Haid-und-Neu Str. 10-14, 76131, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Annika Vernbro & Iris Heckmann

  2. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Englerstr. 11, 76131, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Stefan Nickel

Authors
  1. Annika Vernbro
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  2. Iris Heckmann
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  3. Stefan Nickel
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Annika Vernbro .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Computer Science, Helmut Schmidt University, Institute of Computer Science, Hamburg, Germany

    Andreas Fink

  2. Applied Mathematics, Helmut Schmidt University, Applied Mathematics, Hamburg, Germany

    Armin Fügenschuh

  3. Institute of Logistics and Organization, Helmut Schmidt University, Institute of Logistics and Organization, Hamburg, Germany

    Martin Josef Geiger

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Vernbro, A., Heckmann, I., Nickel, S. (2018). Balancing Effort and Plan Quality: Tactical Supply Chain Planning in the Chemical Industry. In: Fink, A., Fügenschuh, A., Geiger, M. (eds) Operations Research Proceedings 2016. Operations Research Proceedings. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55702-1_83

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