Design of Synchronized Supply Chains: A Six Sigma Tolerancing Approach

A supply chain network can be viewed as a network of facilities in which a customer order will flow through internal business processes such as procurement, production, and transportation, ultimately reaching the required products o n t ime to customers. The delivery performance of such a network can be maximized by pushing the work through the system i n a way that the finished products reach the customer in a customer specified delivery window, with a very high probability. This entails synchronization and hence strict control of variability of deliveries at all intermediate points, to ensure that the m w materials and semi-finished work arrive at work spots in a t imely fashion. In this paper, we explore the use of the Motorola six sigma tolemncang methodology t o achieve synchronization an supply chains. In particular, we use the six sigma approach to: (1) analyze a given supply chain process f o r s i x sigma delivery performance; and (2) design synchronized supply chains t o guarantee six sigma delivery performance. W e provide an example of a plastics industry supply chain, f o r which we report analysis and design experiments that demonstrate the use of the six sigma approach in designing synchronized supply chains with high levels of delivery performance.