Process control in agile supply chain network.

The work comprises a new theoretical development applied to aid decision making in an increasingly important commercial sector. Agile supply, where small volumes of high margin, short life cycle innovative products are offered, is increasingly carried out through a complex global supply chain network. We outline an equilibrium solution in such a supply chain network, which works through limited cooperation and coordination along edges (links) in the network. The links constitute the stochastic modelling entities rather than the nodes of the network. We utilise newly developed phase plane analysis to identify, model and predict characteristic behaviour in supply chain networks. The phase plane charts profile the flow of inventory and identify out of control conditions. They maintain quality within the network, as well as intelligently track the way the network evolves in conditions of changing variability. The methodology is essentially distribution free, relying as it does on the study of forecasting errors, and can be used to examine contractual details as well as strategic and game theoretical concepts between decision-making components (agents) of a network. We illustrate with typical data drawn from supply chain agile fashion products.

An Integrated approach to street canyon pollution modelling.

An integrated method for the prediction of the spatial pollution distribution within a street canyon directly from a microscopic traffic simulation model is outlined. The traffic simulation package Paramics is used to model the flow of vehicles in realistic traffic conditions on a real road network. This produces details of the amount of pollutant produced by each vehicle at any given time. The authors calculate the dispersion of the pollutant using a particle tracking diffusion method which is superimposed on a known velocity and turbulence field. This paper shows how these individual components may be integrated to provide a practical street canyon pollution model. The resulting street canyon pollution model provides isoconcentrations of pollutant within the road topography.