Analysis of the influence of the lot sizing on the efficiency of material flow in the supply chain

• Published in: LogForum (Poznań, Poland) Poland), 2017-01, Vol.13 (3)
• Main Authors: Domański, Roman, Adamczak, Michał
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Customer services; Efficiency; Supply chains
• ISSN: 1895-2038; 1734-459X
• DOI: 10.17270/J.LOG.2017.3.8

Background: Due to the rapidly changing needs of suppliers and customers classic methods of lot sizing do not work. Meanwhile, the target for logistics remains all the time the same: to realize the flow of materials in the supply chain as efficiently as possible. Today, efficiency is understood as the sum of two components: the effectiveness - understood as the degree of achieving the objective (i.e. customer service level indicator) and efficiency - understood as a way to achieve the objective, (i.e. total cost of the material flow in the supply chain). Simulation studies developed by authors was focused on the identification and analysis of both global and local conditions, the efficiency of material flow in the supply chain. Methods: Simulation of material flow in the supply chain was carried out using the spreadsheet. In the analysis of results, statistical software Minitab 17 was used. Using correlation analysis examined the relationship between the cost of the material flow and the realized customer service level. On the base of methods ANOVA and Tukey Pairwise Comparisons determined whether there is a statistically significant relationship between the lot size in flow between companies in supply chain and the cost of that flow through the whole chain. Results: The objective of the article is to identify the relations between the material flow lot size between particular companies in the supply chain and the flow costs and to identify the link in the supply chain that has the greatest impact on the customer service level and the flow total costs in the supply chain. Distribution of demand (category of goods) has an impact on the cost of the material flow in the supply chain. In both analysed distributions of demand (normal and exponential) was observed relationships proportional (what is beneficial for the whole supply chain is also beneficial to the each company in supply chain) as well as the relationship inversely proportional (that which is beneficial to the whole supply chain is bad for one of the companies in the supply chain or what is bad for the whole supply chain is beneficial to one of the companies in the supply chain). Regardless of the demand distribution, lot size in distribution phase has the greatest impact on cost of material flow in supply chain. Conclusions: Distribution of demand is crucial in lot sizing in material flow in the supply chain. According to conducted research, it is possible to identify company, which has a crucial