- What Is Supply Chain Network Design and Why Is It Important?
- Quantitative Data: Why Does Geography Matter?
- Quantitative Data: Why Have Warehouses?
- Quantitative Data: Why Have Multiple Plants?
- Solving the Quantitative Aspects of the Problem Using Optimization
- Data Precision Versus Significance: What Is the Right Level in Modeling?
- Nonquantifiable Data: What Other Factors Need to Be Considered?
- Nonquantifiable Data: What Are the Organizational Challenges?
- Where Are We Going with the Book?
- End-of-Chapter Questions
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Where Are We Going with the Book?
This book is organized to give you a set of building blocks to tackle any type of supply chain. We will start with very simple problems and build from there. This field is surprisingly deep however, and this book cannot cover every type of model to address every type of business that can benefit from modeling. We have found that advances in optimization technology and computing power have opened up new opportunities for answering different questions and using this technology for more and more decisions and we expect this to continue at an even faster pace in the years to come.
In fact, in just the past ten years, we have seen a dramatic increase in the complexity of models that people want to run and the frequency with which they want to run these models. This is a very positive trend as firms derive more and more value from these types of models.
To successfully deploy the more complex models and run them on a more frequent basis, we think it is critical that you understand the basic building blocks.
You will gain a lot of depth and insight from even the simplest problems. Then, later, as you tackle larger and more complex problems, the foundations you learned from the simple problems will continue to serve you well.