A Framework of Adaptive Control for Complex Production and Logistics Networks

Abstract

The collaborative networks (CN) must be configured according to the project goals and reconfigured in dynamics according to the current execution environment. In practice, CN design decisions are rarely focused on ``green Field{''} situation. More typically questions are centred on adaptation and rationalizing the CN in response to permanent changes of CN itself and its environment. That is why we consider the problem of business continuity supporting and continuous adjustment of collaborative networks in accordance with permanent changes of project execution environment as a critical point in the CN research. Subject of this contribution is to elaborate a methodological basis of the CN adaptation. In the CN, adaptation challenges are caused by self-interested competitive behavior of participated enterprises, unpredictable execution environment, structure dynamics structure dynamics of both CN itself and of the supporting infrastructures like information processes. To answer these challenges, we introduce the framework of CN adaptive control to increase the quality of decision-making about the CN reconfiguration and adjustment based on planning under the terms of uncertainty, execution under the terms of adaptation, and reflections of planning and execution phases of the CN control on the adaptation principles. We illustrate the methodological framework on an analytical example, which matches the stability and robustness analysis in the planning phase with the CN adaptation in the execution phase based on a systematic approach to derive the adaptation measures according to different deviations. First, the multi-stage adaptation concept is presented. We draw the conclusion that the CN robustness must be considered in connection to the stability analysis and CN adaptation. We show that particularly the user-controlled adaptation plays the key role in supply chains to achieve or to hold the stable or rather robust state. To amplify this idea, the CN adaptation and stability/robustness analysis are considered interrelated to each other. We finish this section with a short numerical example. The article is concluded with a summary of the achieved results and prospects for future developments. The practical applicability of the presented results can be seen in elaborating a comprehensive approach to decision making in complex value-adding partnerships, which allows generating stable plans and guidelines for operative CN adjustment.