SOFTCOMPUTING FOR INTEGRATED SOFTGOODS SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

A softgoods supply chain involves the activity and interaction of many entities of the fiber-textile-apparel-retail industry. Usually each of these entities knows how to make locally optimal decisions when the situation is clear. Unfortunately many decisions must be made in settings involving vagueness and uncertainty. Furthermore successful supply chain operation requires coordination of decisions of the individual entities while the level of uncertainty is amplified as information is passing through the chain. Even in the emerging data rich environment with current information technology, lack of fundamental knowledge about supply chain operation in a fuzzy environment is still a key problem faced by the industry.

The goal of this talk is to explore and demonstrate the use of fuzzy mathematics, neural networks, and other softcomputing techniques in addressing some critical problems for softgoods supply chain management.