Application of soft computing and Neural Networks in Supply chain Management

It is broadly recognized by many companies that supply chain management is one of the major core issues for an Business firm to compete in the marketplace. Institutional strategies are mainly concentrated on improvement of customer service levels as well as reduction of operational costs in order to maintain profit margins. Therefore supply chain performance has attracted researchers ‘attention. A variety of soft computing techniques including fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms have been employed to improve effectiveness and efficiency in various aspects of supply chain management. For a production firm Meanwhile, an increasing number of ideas have been published to address related issues. The aim of this paper is to simplify the findings by a systematic review of existing research ideas concerning the application of soft computing techniques to supply chain management. Some areas in supply chain management that have rarely been exposed in existing ideas, such as customer formality management and reverse logistics, are therefore suggested for future research.