A virtual environment system for manufacturing supply chain management

This thesis documents a novel web-based virtual environment system (WVESC) for the manufacturing supply chain management (SCM). It includes five components; virtual manufacturing environment, information coding and encoding, decision making module, database management module and Internet platform. The WVESC system is intended to add the virtual reality function to the SCM so that the users can understand and experience the activities and processes of the supply chains without need for the high level technical knowledge. The research has successfully addressed following two issues, why and where to use virtual environments in SCM and how to use virtual environments in SCM. In this research, virtual environments and manufacturing supply chain are investigated to identify their integration points and the applications of virtual environments in manufacturing are studied. The supply chain is analysed from two perspectives; supply chain node and supply chain process. Four general virtual manufacturing environments (VME) including virtual factory, virtual warehouse, virtual transportation centre and virtual retailer shop are designed and constructed to represent the supply chain nodes for visualising and simulating their processes and activities. Push and pull supply chain scenarios are designed for illustrating the system implementation. The research has proposed a development framework for assembly of collaborative, interactive and online 3D working environments for the supply chain participator. The main findings of the WVESC prototype system testing were enhanced capabilities for the supply chain planning, supply chain execution and supply chain collaboration, as well as the benefit in visualising and simulating the material and information flow of the supply chain operations. Future research is proposed to concentrate on expanding the system including the scope of virtual models and improving the decision making techniques in order to make the system more adaptable and flexible.