A Framework to Support Co-Design Exploration of Manufacturing Supply Networks for Resilience

Abstract Manufacturing Supply Networks (MSNs) involve group decisions to achieve group goals and network decisions to achieve network goals. These decisions are made across multiple levels of a decision hierarchy. Given the frequent disruptions in MSNs, ‘resilience’ — the ability to maintain satisfactory network functionality despite disruptions, is a vital network goal. When designing MSNs for resilience, the resilience and group goals often conflict, requiring simultaneous consideration of network and group decisions. Limited information in the early stages of MSN design necessitates focusing on design exploration. Hence, facilitating ‘co-design exploration’ — a simultaneous exploration of network and group solution spaces is crucial. Current approaches for designing MSNs for resilience do not support simultaneous consideration of network and group decisions. To bridge this gap, we present the Co-Design Exploration of MSNs for Resilience (CoDE-MR) framework to facilitate co-design exploration of the network and the groups. CoDE-MR framework allows designers to model multilevel network and group decisions and their interactions, manage disruptions, and visualize and simultaneously explore the multilevel network and group solution spaces. In the framework, we integrate a combination of Preemptive and Archimedean formulations of the coupled-compromise Decision Support Problem construct with Resilience Index metric and interpretable Self-Organizing Map (iSOM)-based visualization to facilitate co-design exploration of MSNs for resilience. The framework’s efficacy is demonstrated using a steel MSN test problem, considering network and group decisions across two levels. The use of information flow and generic constructs makes the framework generic and well-suited for co-design exploration of multilevel systems to ensure resilience.