Planning in Global chemical supply chains with regulatory factors

Abstract

Both chemical supply chain operation and strategic problems have received extensive interest from researchers for some years now. However, most existing models that address these problems have limited application in the industry due to (1) omission of regulatory factors, (2) non-generic representation of regulatory factors, (3) unrealistic representation of problem parameters, or (4) omission of industrially relevant decision-making process constraints. This dissertation aims to address the existing deficiencies in the chemical supply chain research in three major ways. First, it introduces and classifies the major regulatory factors that can influence supply chain decisions of chemical companies. Second, it introduces five new chemical supply chain models which have better application potential than most existing ones in literature. Third, it introduces a novel solution methodology that is capable of addressing large scale stochastic supply chain design and operation problems with account of regulatory factors and risk control constraint.