Comparison of hybrid production planning and control strategies for supply chain management: A multi-criteria approach

In most of the cases, a supply chain management strategy addressing material flows control consists of push, pull or hybrid controlled system. This paper presents the development of a multi-criteria decision making approach for the comparison of hybrid strategies combining pull and push- systems applied to linear supply chains. The multi-criteria approach is based on the combination of Analytical Network Process and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution. The approach copes with the complexity of supply chains and addresses the comparison between different hybrid strategies, namely Constant Work In Progress, Double Speed Single Production Line, and Paired-Cell Overlapping Loops of Cards with Authorization. Results from the multi-criteria analysis show that the strategy Double Speed Single Production Line globally outperforms the other strategies in most of the cases tested.