Pinch Analysis as a Knowledge Management Tool for Optimization in Supply Chain

Abstract

Supply chain managers are trying to maximize the profitable operation of their manufacturing and distribution supply chain, but due to global competition in process industries and complexities of the supply chain processes together with large computational times, it has made optimization of supply chain management (SCM) quite difficult. Recently, Knowledge management (KM) is a new important information technology-based business paradigm for achieving competitive advantage, and it is no surprise that it has received so much attention from researchers. This paper therefore deploys Pinch Analysis, a practicable tool that entails less complex mathematics compared to many other optimization tools, to manage critical knowledge generated in supply chains. In this study, demand and supply explicit knowledge from the organization was represented as composites for the pinch analysis. The developed system gave supply chain managers new insights into SCM and thus aiding quick decision-making and on the overall helped to achieve the much needed competitive advantage.