Introduction

This chapter introduces supply chain scheduling, the topic of this book. Our study of supply chain scheduling contains two main parts. In the first part, we consider decision making by a single centralized agent who evaluates tradeoffs between different operational decisions and their related profits or costs within a supply chain. In the second part, we consider decision making by two or more decentralized agents and study the combined effect of their self-interested decisions on the quality of overall supply chain solutions. A common theme throughout both these environments is how to achieve coordination among the various operational functions and decisions within the supply chain, in order to improve its overall performance. In this chapter, we first position supply chain scheduling relative to the literature of classical scheduling and that of supply chain management. For both centralized and decentralized supply chains, we then discuss a wide variety of applications that motivate the modeling and methodological developments which are studied in later chapters. Limitations to our scope are also discussed. Finally, we provide an overview of the book.