Introduction to Supply Chain Management

Supply-Chain Management (SCM) is the buzzword that has been coined to designate the integrated study of the set of processes - procurement, transformation, transportation, warehousing, inventory, distribution, ... - that culminate with the delivery of goods and services to customers. These processes have been extensively studied over the last fifty years through models such as facility location, inventory management coupled with setup reduction, assembly line balancing, vehicle routing, machine scheduling... Integrating them in global models that involve networks of firms is a formidable challenge that can only be met through cooperation and information sharing, and through the use of sophisticated Information and Decision Support Systems. As a consequence of the need for integrated global models, solving SCM problems requires that the walls between functions, departments and participating companies be opened so that global solutions can be reached for accrued mutual benefit.

Jean-Marie Bourjolly is Associate Professor of Operations Research and Operations Management at Concordia University in Montreal. He obtained a Ph.D. degree in Combinatorics and Optimization at University of Waterloo. His research interests comprise the design of efficient algorithms for classical O.R. models, but also for applied industrial problems arising in the fields of Telecommunications and Supply Chain Managerment. Dr. Bourjolly is Associate Editor of Naval Research Logistics; his papers have appeared in a number of first class journals such as Mathematical Programming and Management Science.He is co-winner, together with the members of Prestige Telecom's R&D Department, of the of the First Prize at the 2001-Competition on the Practice of Operational Research, awarded by the Canadian Operational Research Society, for their study entitled 'DOCAF(tm) : A commercial software package for Frequency Allocation in cellular phone networks'.