Designing an integrated decision support system to link supply chain processes performance with time to market

ABSTRACT

This study aims to evaluate the relative importance of critical performing supply chain (SC) processes instrumental in reducing the Time to Market (TTM) of a firm by taking the case of an apparel company. An integrated decision support system based on the Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been employed to prioritize the critical strategic factors and their relevant sub-factors essential for TTM. This approach also allows determining the degree of impact of each factor on the company’s TTM. The results show the instrumental role of Plan and Deliver in SC processes in reducing the TTM. Within Plan and Deliver, the role of demand forecasting error and service quality was found to be substantial in controlling TTM. The findings of this study can be helpful for the managers and decision-makers to identify the key areas at the operational level that need to be improved and have an impact on strategic level performance, i.e. TTM. The use of a decision support system to identify the critical supply chain processes and sub-processes is a major contribution of this study.

KEYWORDS:

• Time to market
• supply chain management
• fuzzy inference system
• analytic hierarchy process
• decision support system
• apparel SC

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank apparel ABC company managers, decision-makers, and their staff who devoted their time developing the FIS “if-then” rules and AHP pairwise comparison. Also, we would like to thank their entire SC department for being cooperative and supportive during the entire period of this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The term TTM has been used throughout the paper to represent focus of a firm to reduce time to market.