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In this article we propose the use of an information-content based measure as a proxy for supply chain complexity. The focus of our research is the problem of structural complexity in the supply chain, i.e. the complexity emanating from the proliferation of products, channels and markets. Notwithstanding it is widely agreed among practitioners that this proliferation damages supply chains, rendering them less efficient, there is still need for a mechanism for measuring structural complexity and evaluating its impact on the firm's performance. In an attempt to filling this void, we propose a definition that originates from the firm's business strategy and, based on it, suggest the direct use of entropy as a more austere measure for structural complexity than other available alternatives, which rely heavily in the use of typically hard to acquire data. We show that the suggested measure has some interesting mathematical properties (to which we refer to as internal consistency) together with the capability of reproducing certain empirical regularities observed in supply chain management (external consistency). Moreover, the proposed measure has attributes that are not present in other measures: it requires a limited and easily accessible amount of data, it allows direct comparison between firms or business units, and it is a useful tool for assessing the impact on structural complexity of alternative managerial decisions (the look-ahead property). Numerical examples are provided.

In many domains, Discrete-Event Simulations (DES) are usually used to reproduce the behavior of a certain system or process, where events are processed one after another in chronological and sequential order. Classical DES will no longer be a possible solution for Complex and Large-scale systems, System of Systems (SoS), and Performance Evaluation Systems that compare multiple different simulations running simultaneously in parallel. Advances in network and communications made the Distributed Simulation (DS) approach one of the best solutions for the aforementioned Systems Simulations. One of the challenges faced when developing a DS from DES components is the federation behavior including time management and synchronization between these components. In most of the traditional DES platforms, simulations cannot exchange messages, nor change the configuration at run time. This makes the DES connection and integration very hard and at times, impossible to implement. This article presents the method used to integrate different DES components, using High-Level Architecture (HLA) Evolved Standard, Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN), and Jaamsim, a Java open source DES.

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International audienceIn New Product Development (NPD) projects, various partners may be involved at different phases and their participation can lead to either success or failure of the project. Therefore, a company that launches a NPD project has to carefully select the most appropriate partners. Currently, partner selection in supply chains is often performed according to well-known criteria such as cost or delay. However, problems could emerge in such processes due to the unavoidable power disequilibrium of the parties involved. The strongest party will sooner or later force the weaker ones to accept challenging constraints. The use of power will lead to doubtless mistrust and frustration. Therefore, the awareness of the suppliers' power before any collaboration is of upmost importance and in realistic situations it should be used as a high-level selection criterion. This paper argues that the power of partners represents a significant issue for the achievement of a coherent supplier selection strategy. A method is suggested to assess the power of partners based on its performances. The joint use of a power-based selection approach and a performance-based selection approach is illustrated at the end of the paper showing how the power consideration can help decision-makers in selecting more relevant partners

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Today, companies know that product customization can help gaining competitive advantage; consequently, new approaches and tools are still needed to sustain new processes of product development. This paper aims at describing a conceptual approach combining different actor's competencies and different available tools in order to manage efficiently Engineer-to-Order (ETO) product required by [mal customers. The proposed approach is initiated and developed within the European project "ESTIMATE", Eurostars program. It reinforces the idea that achieving a successful customer order fulfilment passes by a thoughtful ETO processes. ESTIMATE's overall concept will be highlighted showing how the performance improvement could be reached through the described collaborative approach (modelled by BPMN and UML diagrams).