ABSTRACT
In this chapter 3, we describe how the variation management approach can be extended and used for complex chains of companies providing both pre- and after-sales services for customers for their products that cannot be repaired. First, we show that there are two highly convoluted forward and after-sales supply chains in these companies. Then, we explain the interactions between these two chains that justify the requirement for their concurrent flow planning. Finally, we develop a model to select variation management decisions concurrently for forward and after-sales supply chains. The numerical analysis of results concludes with useful insights about variation management in forward and after-sales supply chains.
