A simulation model of a coordinated decentralized supply chain

This paper presents a simulation‐based study of a coordinated, decentralized linear supply chain (SC) system. In the proposed model, any supply tier considers its successors as part of its inventory system and generates replenishment orders on the basis of its partners’ operational information. We show that the proposed coordinated decision‐making process creates a reduction in information distortion along an SC compared with a traditional, noncoordinated strategy. A novel result is that we show how a coordinated SC can avoid the detrimental consequences of demand amplification in terms of penalty costs due to the stockout phenomenon in upstream stages.     

The consignment stock of inventories in coordinated model with generalized policy

In this paper, coordination between a single vendor (or manufacturer) and a buyer (or retailer) via the delivery schedule in a production and distribution system is presented. A continuous deterministic model with centralized decision process is developed. To satisfy the buyer’s demands, the product is delivered in discrete batches from the vendor’s stock to the buyer’s stock and all shipments are realized instantaneously. A more general type of consignment stock (CS) policies for the vendor–buyer integrated production–distribution model is analyzed. Our model does not require equal in size shipments. The inventory patterns and the cost structure of production distribution cycles (PDC) are described in different scenarios. A comparative study of the results shows that the generalized CS policies perform better. Considering CS-policies Braglia and Zavanella (2003) ask about a possibility of cost reduction by delaying a number of late deliveries. Unfortunately, a negative answer was given by Zanoni and Grubbström (2004). We verify this problem to obtain a positive answer in more general setting. A solution procedure is developed to find optimal generalized CS-policy for the problems with nonequal and equal in size deliveries. Optimal solutions are found and illustrated with numerical examples.     

Coordinating a three-level supply chain with delay in payments and a discounted interest rate

Both researchers and practitioners recognize the importance of the interactions between financial and inventory decisions in the development of cost effective supply chains. Moreover, achieving effective coordination among the supply chain players has become a pertinent research issue. This paper considers a three-level supply chain, consisting of a capital-constrained supplier, a retailer, and a financial intermediary (bank), coordinating their decisions to minimize the total supply chain costs. Specifically, we consider a retailer managing its cash through the supplier’s bank, in return for permissible delay in payments from the supplier. The bank, benefiting from increasing its cash holdings with the retailer’s cash deposits, offers the supplier a discount on its borrowing rate. We show that the proposed coordination mechanism achieves significant cost reduction, by up to 26.2%, when compared to the non-coordinated model. We also find that, with coordination, the retailer orders in larger quantities than its economic order quantity, and that a higher return on cash for the retailer leads to a higher order quantity. Furthermore, we empirically validate our proposed coordination mechanism, by showing that banks, retailers, and suppliers have much to gain through collaboration. Thus, using COMPUSTAT datasets for the years 1950 through 2012, we determine the most important factors that affect the behavior of the retailers and suppliers in granting and receiving trade credit. Our results indicate that engaging into such a coordination mechanism is a win–win situation to all parties involved.     

Stochastic models for the coordinated production and shipment problem in a supply chain

In this study, we consider the coordination of transportation and production policies between a single supplier and a single retailer in a stochastic environment. The supplier controls the production, holds inventory and ships the products to the retailer to satisfy the external demand. We model the system as a Markov decision process, and show that the optimal production and transportation decisions are complex and non-monotonic. Therefore, we analyze two widely-used shipment policies in the industry as well, namely time-based and quantity-based shipment policies in addition to a hybrid time-and-quantity based shipment policy. We numerically compare the performances of these policies with respect to the optimal policy and analyze the effects of the parameters in the system.     

Pricing,manufacturing and inventory policies for raw material in a three-level supply chain

We studied a decentralised three-layer supply chain including a supplier, a producer and some retailers. All the retailers order their demands to the producer and the producer order his demands to the supplier. We assumed that the demand is price sensitive and shortage is not permitted. The goal of the paper is to optimise the total cost of the supply chain network by coordinating decision-making policy using Stackelberg–Nash equilibrium. The decision variables of our model are the supplier's price, the producer's price and the number of shipments received by the supplier and producer, respectively. To illustrate the applicability of the proposed model numerical examples are presented.     

Outsourcing and climbing a value chain

A value chain is a core concept of manufacturing economics. Yet, business reporters often misuse the concept when discussing global outsourcing in electronic equipment manufacturing. This confusion is, fortunately, correctable with one big insight: There are two distinct strategies for improving a firm's value chain. Once these strategies are clarified, it exposes the problems with today's policy debate about outsourcing.     

The value of information sharing in a supply chain with a seasonal demand process

This paper considers a two echelon seasonal supply chain model that consists of one supplier and one retailer, with the assumption that external demand from the customer follows a seasonal autoregressive moving average (SARMA) process, including marketing actions that cannot be deduced from the other parameters of the demand process. In our model, the supplier and the retailer employ order-up-to policy to replenish their inventory. In order to evaluate the value of information sharing in a two echelon seasonal supply chain, three levels of information sharing proposed by Yu, Yan, and Cheng (2002) are used. The results for optimal inventory policies under these three levels of information sharing are derived. We show that the seasonal effect has an important impact on optimal inventory policies of the supplier under the three levels of information sharing. Our findings also demonstrate that the replenishment of lead time must be less than the seasonal period in order to benefit from information sharing. Thus, this result provides managers with managerial insights to improve supply chain performance through information sharing integration partnerships.     

基于Shapley值修正的服务供应链系统利益分配研究

基于Shapley值的利益分配策略是研究利益分配的有效方法,但其不考虑系统成员在投入等因素方面的差异性,因此在服务供应链系统利益分配过程中,需要进行修正。通过分别考虑投入因素、努力因素和风险因素对其进行修正的基础上,建立了基于Shapely值的服务供应链系统利益分配综合修正模型进行利益分配。     

The Kendra cache replacement policy and its distribution

The Kendra project's aim is to develop a distributed multimedia delivery system which utilises intelligent caching mechanisms to improve availability, performance and reliability while minimising storage space and network utilisation. In this paper we present the Kendra cache replacement technique and its performance against widely varying test data. We then examine the replacement policy's performance in both a geographically organised hierarchy of caches and a geographically ordered multicast group of caches. We demonstrate a considerable improvement in Internet delivery performance both in terms of response time and bandwidth saving and uniquely exam the trade-off between cache performance and metadata processing.     

Hierarchical business value of information technology: Toward a digital innovation value chain

Information technology (IT) increasingly changes the ways through which firms develop and commercialize innovation. Prior studies have mainly focused on the direct effect of IT use on innovation performance, while little is known about how IT use for different purposes in the innovation processes leads to innovation performance at the organizational level. Drawing on the routine-based absorptive capacity (AC) framework, we conceptualize IT use for knowledge search and relational search as IT-enabled internal and external AC routines and unveil the hierarchical benefits resulting from IT use for innovation. We propose a model in which firms need to purposefully use IT to search for knowledge in the new product development process or search for relationships in the collaborative innovation process, leading to first-order benefits (i.e., internal innovation benefits and open innovation benefits) and, in turn, second-order benefits (i.e., innovation performance). By using a unique data set from 1028 German firms between 2003 and 2007, we find that IT use for knowledge search enhances internal innovation benefits, whereas IT use for relational search increases open innovation benefits. More importantly, internal and open innovation benefits mediate the relationships between IT use for knowledge and relational search and various innovation performance measures. Taken together, our findings shed light on a deeper understanding of the digital innovation value chain.     

电信运营商在3G价值链中的定位

与2G价值链相比，3G价值链要复杂的多。面对差异巨大的用户需求和全新的价值链，3G运营商必须采取正确的商业模型和经营策赂。这要求运营商首先必须明确自己在3G价值链上的战略定位，即究竟应该进入3G价值链上的哪些环节。本从两个角度对运营商在3G价值链中的战略定位进行了初步探讨：(1)运营商需要根据目标客户的特征进行战略定位。(2)运营商需要根据业务提供过程中各价值环节的增值幅度进行定位。     

基于修正区间模糊Shapley值信息产品供应链利益分配算法

信息产品供应链参与体面临风险差异,提出区间模糊Shapley算法分配信息产品收益以实现公平性。在收益不确定的条件下构造收益模糊值,引入区间模糊Shapley值的隶属度函数,给出确定的分配方案。综合考虑各项风险因素对利益分配的影响,采用模糊层次分析法对风险因子进行修正,以确保信息产品供应链的稳定性     

The architecture and business value of a semi-cooperative, agent-based supply chain management system

Multi-agent systems have the potential to improve supply chain management. The adoption of such systems has been limited, as their design often neglects existing organizational realities and the business value for the various stakeholders is not clear. In this paper, a multi-agent system improving supply chain management is designed and its business value is evaluated. We present the semi-cooperative architecture and evaluate the benefits using agent-based simulation. We found that the multi-agent system increases the level of flexibility in the supply chain and enables supply chain members to become more responsive. This has a positive impact on the ordering lead-time, human processing time, the inventory levels and number of stock-outs.     

Disruptions management of a supply chain under strategic subsidy policy for the demand-stimulating inventory

This paper introduces a game model of one manufacturer and one retailer with the demand depending on the amount of inventory displayed on the retailer’s shelf. We study coordination mechanisms of the supply chain with the two kinds of disruptions. To coordinate the channel as well as make a profit, the manufacturer needs to augment the wholesale price lever by another, i.e., an inventory-holding cost subsidy to the retailer. We show that the inventory-subsidy contract for disruption(s) situation has its rationality and limitation: from the perspective of feasibility analysis, we find that when the disrupted amount of inventory-holding cost is larger than a certain threshold value, both players can achieve win–win by using inventory-subsidy contract. Otherwise, it may be ineffective. For two-factor disruptions, there are some mutual restraints between the disrupted inventory-holding cost and the disrupted demand when the coordination mechanism is used. We also find that both disruption situations have their own robust scales, in which the manufacturer should not change the original production plan but at the expense of providing a more attractive subsidy scheme to the retailer. Interestingly, some counter-intuitive managerial insights can be observed in robust scales. For example, the market demand increases with the displayed inventory level in the setting of the demand-stimulating inventory. However, the higher the demand, the less displayed inventory level will be in the robust scale.     

基于碳配额政策的两级低碳供应链博弈与优化

通过构建供应商和制造商两级低碳供应链Stackelberg博弈模型,得到博弈均衡解和收益共享契约参数,比较分散决策、集中决策和收益共享契约下实现低碳供应链的经济效应,并通过算例分析了是否合作减排以及合作减排对供应链成员产量、碳减排量、利润的影响和收益共享契约参数对供应链成员利润的影响,为供应链上下游企业开展碳减排合作提供了理论依据和政策建议.     

成本分担机制下考虑品牌商誉的三级绿色供应链微分博弈

考虑产品绿色度和品牌商誉的动态性,引入价格加成系数刻画采购价格、批发价格和销售价格三者之间的关系,采用微分博弈研究由供应商、制造商和零售商组成的三级绿色供应链的投资策略与协调问题.探讨并对比分析集中决策模型、无成本分担契约的分散决策模型和有成本分担契约的分散决策模型的均衡结果,设计双边成本分担契约对供应链进行协调.研究表明:产品绿色度的最优轨迹具有两种变化趋势,由产品绿色度初始值和稳态值的大小关系决定;品牌商誉的最优轨迹具有3种变化趋势,由品牌商誉初始值和稳态值的大小关系决定;集中决策模型最优,有成本分担契约的分散决策模型对绿色供应链的帕累托改进有限,而在一定条件下,双边成本分担契约可以完全协调绿色供应链.此外,双边成本分担契约的成立条件和协调性与价格加成系数有关.     

The strategic value of supply chain visibility: increasing the ability to reconfigure

To understand the role of supply chain visibility in creating strategic value, this study uses the dynamic capabilities view to uncover the nature of supply chain visibility. The study identifies four important constructs of supply chain visibility that are helpful in driving supply chain reconfigurability and thus improving supply chain strategic performance. They are visibility for sensing, visibility for learning, visibility for coordinating, and visibility for integrating. The results show that visibility for sensing has direct impact on supply chain strategic performance. Empirical evidence also supports that visibility for learning, visibility for coordinating, and visibility for integrating are important for enhancing supply chain reconfigurability, thus creating strategic value in supply chains. Supply chain visibility therefore enables firms to reconfigure their supply chain resources for greater competitive advantage. Implications of the results regarding the nature and the role of supply chain visibility in enhancing supply chain strategic performance are provided.     

解析3G价值链

本首先对3G价值链与2G价值链进行了比较；为了深入分析，对价值链与产业价值链进行了区分，3G价值链比较复杂。3G价值链的基本环节包括内容生产与管理、应用开发与平台运行、网关与移动接入、价值链集成与业务销售等。3G价值链还包括技术解决方案，移动终端以及最终用户等环节。本对3G价值链与产业价值链的对应关系进行了分析，随着3G业务的开展，移动数据应用越来越复杂，移动数据市场竞争越来越激烈，3G产业价值链会发生分解与重构，3G产业将出现一体化与专业化两种趋势。不同的移动数据应用的具体产业链不同，众多的移动数据应用的具体产业链就形成了3G移动数据产业价值网－这就是未来3G产业生态系统的状况。3G产业价值链的培育目标是，建立完备，成熟、均衡，有明确合理商业模式的价值链。