The value of trade credit with rebate contract in a capital-constrained supply chain

We investigate the value of an innovative trade credit with rebate contract (TCRC) model in a stylised supply chain. In this supply chain, the capital-abundant manufacturer offers an integrated contract involving trade credit, minimum ordering and sales rebate contract to a capital-constrained retailer. To highlight the value of the TCRC model, we compare it with a traditional trade credit financing (TTCF) model in a ‘selling to the newsvendor model’. First, we show that equilibrium strategies exist between the manufacturer and the retailer under the TCRC or TTCF model. Second, this study investigates equilibrium selection between the TCRC and TTCF models for the individual and the supply chain. Finally, we show the manufacturer’s pricing policy, wherein the TCRC model outperforms the TTCF model for the players. Furthermore, we conduct a set of numerical experiments to show evidence for theoretical analysis and measure the operation efficiency of the TCRC model for players in the supply chain.     

供应链内部成员满意

供应链内部成员的满意度对于供应链管理相当重要,基于质量功能展开的思想,提出了一种确定供应链内部成员需求以及供应链的核心企业为满足这些需求所应采取的措施的结构化方法,为供应链内部成员的管理提供了实用的方法与工具。     

Dual channel closed-loop supply chain coordination with a reward-driven remanufacturing policy

This paper investigates a reward-driven policy, employed in a closed-loop supply chain (CLSC), for acquiring used products earmarked for remanufacture. Under the examined model, a single manufacturer sells products through a retailer as well as directly to end users in a forward supply chain. In the reverse supply chain, three different modes of collection are employed to capture used products for remanufacture: they are through a third party, directly by the manufacturer and from the retailer. Mathematical models for both non-cooperative and centralised scenarios are developed to characterise the pricing decisions and remanufacturing strategies that indicate individual and overall supply chain performance. Optimality of all the proposed models is examined with theory. To coordinate and achieve a win–win outcome for channel members, we proposed a three-way discount mechanism for the manufacturer. Extended numerical investigation provides insights on ways to manage an efficient reward-driven CLSC in a dual-channel environment.     

双方不完全信息下政府引导的逆向供应链协调研究

讨论双方不完全信息下政府引导一个制造商和两个零售商组成的逆向供应链的协调问题。运用信号甄别和委托代理理论,分别从政府不参与、政府奖励零售商和政府奖励制造商三个方面得到零售商和制造商的协调策略。研究表明:定价合同可有效避免逆向选择,实现逆向供应链协调;高市场需求状态下低成本零售商获得收益较高;政府对企业的合理奖励,尤其是对零售商的奖励,可以促进逆向供应链协调,提高收益。     

Real options approach to evaluate postponement as supply chain disruptions mitigation strategy

The purpose of this paper is to assess the value of postponement as strategy for mitigating supply chain disruptions. To accomplish this objective, we develop a real option computational model that quantifies the value of postponement in mitigating both supply and demand disruptions by taking into account the value of managerial flexibility to decide whether exploiting or not the strategy, if and when disruptions occur, and whenever product differentiation proves valuable based on information available at that time. Numerical experiments show the importance of incorporating an option valuation method when pricing the value of postponement. This ensures managers implement postponement only when it is valuable, thus avoiding burdening the company with its initial sunk costs. By modelling the postponement implementation under different conditions, we identify the situations in which postponement performs better as supply chain disruptions mitigation strategy. We derive the operational configurations, in terms of decoupling point position, and external conditions, in terms of riskiness of the environment, which make the postponement an effective mitigation strategy.     

Lean,agile or leagile? Matching your supply chain to the marketplace

Many enterprises have pursued the lean thinking paradigm to improve the efficiency of their business processes. More recently, the agile manufacturing paradigm has been highlighted as an alternative to, and possibly an improvement on, leanness. In pursuing such arguments in isolation, the power of each paradigm may be lost, which is basically that agile manufacturing is adopted where demand is volatile, and lean manufacturing adopted where there is a stable demand. However, in some situations it is advisable to utilize a different paradigm on either side of the material flow de-coupling point to enable a total supply chain strategy. This approach we have termed the Leagile Paradigm. This paper therefore considers the effect of the marketplace environment on strategy selection to ensure optimal supply chain performance. Real-world case studies in the mechanical precision products, carpet making, and electronic products market sectors demonstrate the new approach to matching supply chain design to the actual needs of the marketplace.     

Supplier selection based on supply chain ecosystem,performance and risk criteria

A supply chain ecosystem consists of the elements of the supply chain and the entities that influence the goods, information and financial flows through the supply chain. These influences come through government regulations, human, financial and natural resources, logistics infrastructure and management, etc., and thus affect the supply chain performance. Similarly, all the ecosystem elements also contribute to the risk. The aim of this paper is to identify both performances-based and risk-based decision criteria, which are important and critical to the supply chain. A two step approach using fuzzy AHP and fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution has been proposed for multi-criteria decision-making and illustrated using a numerical example. The first step does the selection without considering risks and then in the next step suppliers are ranked according to their risk profiles. Later, the two ranks are consolidated into one. In subsequent section, the method is also extended for multi-tier supplier selection. In short, we are presenting a method for the design of a resilient supply chain, in this paper.     

基于Bertrand闭环供应链的企业价格博弈模型

设计了一个具有供应商和两个零售商组成的Bertrand双寡头价格博弈的主从闭环供应链系统,给出了分散和集中两种模式下批发价、零售价、回收价以及各方利润的具体表达式并进行了比较,研究了供应链整体利润与产品和废弃品替代率的关系。最后,在此基础上分析了分散模式下零售商和生产商的具体对策,提出了两阶段数量折扣协调策略实现帕累托改进,并求出了折扣率和补贴率的具体范围,为进一步研究更一般的闭环供应链系统打下理论基础。     

Enhanced joint pricing and lotsizing problem in a two-echelon supply chain with logit demand function

In retail supply chains, ordering and pricing policies for the retailer and shipment plan for the supplier are the most important decisions. These policies are often conducted either individually or sequentially with poor overall performance for the whole supply chain resulting to extra inventory and other deficiencies. In this paper, an integrated marketing-inventory model in a two-echelon supply chain model is developed involving discount promotion, customer behaviour more realistically and operations aspects to determine optimal ordering, shipping and pricing quantities simultaneously. An efficient analytical solution procedure and a Particle Swarm Optimisation solution algorithm are also developed. Finally, a number of numerical tests are conducted to approve the interesting theoretical results of the analytical approach.     

Impact of demand price elasticity on advantages of cooperative advertising in a two-tier supply chain

This paper focuses on pricing and vertical cooperative advertising decisions in a two-tier supply chain. Using a Stackelberg game model where the manufacturer acts as the game leader and the retailer acts as the game follower, we obtain closed-form equilibrium solution and explicitly show how pricing and advertising decisions are made. When market demand decreases exponentially with respect to the retail price and increases with respect to national and local advertising expenditures in an additive way, the manufacturer benefits from providing percentage reimbursement for the retailer’s local advertising expenditure when demand price elasticity is large enough. Whether the manufacturer benefits from cooperative advertising is also closely related to supply chain member’s relative advertising efficiency. In the decision for adopting coop advertising strategy, it is critical for the manufacturer to identify how market demand depends on national and local advertisements. The findings from this research can enhance our understanding of cooperative advertising decisions in a two-tier supply chain with price-dependent demand.     

考虑随机市场需求和不同博弈地位的双渠道供应链策略分析

为研究供应链成员不同博弈地位下双渠道定价及随机库存问题,分别构建制造商主导、零售商主导及双方同等博弈地位的双渠道供应链博弈模型,考察随机市场需求对定价、库存及利润的影响,分析具有不同博弈地位的供应链策略差异,并通过数值仿真探讨最佳响应策略。结果表明,主导方凭借地位优势拥有更强的价格把控权及库存调配能力,获得更高收益;制造商主导型供应链具有更强的渠道整合能力,供应链的整体利润水平高于零售商主导型;同等博弈地位情形的博弈双方可根据共同市场信息及竞争对手策略更新自身策略,具有较低的库存风险,渠道定价越低,但双重边际效应降低了双方收益;市场需求波动越大,渠道定价、库存量及供应链利润均越大,此时主导方利润增幅大于追随者。     

Coordinating a trust-embedded two-tier supply chain by options with multiple transaction periods

Trust widely works in supply chain practices and deeply affects supply chain decisions. Full trust in transactions and inaccurate demand forecasts are most likely to lead to biased decisions and low supply chain performances. Therefore, we propose a trust updating model to quantify decision-maker’s trust. The model presents the variation of trust over time and is helpful to evaluate decision-maker’s trust level in each transaction. In the model, a coordination mechanism with contract is designed to mitigate each supply chain partner’s ordering risk. Optimal order strategies of both manufactures and retailers in a supply chain under a bidirectional option contract are analysed in this paper. We find the manufacturer’s optimal production quantity is positively affected by penalty price in the contract and its bounds are given by simulation analysis. Our findings in this paper indicate that the proposed coordination mechanism with bidirectional option contract is profitable to all supply chain partners in long-term transactions. Meanwhile, the coordination mechanism helps the supply chain partners to catch up with marketing fluctuations and enhances the supply chain trust and partnerships. Finally, some simulation experiments are employed to obtain more observations.     

动力电池梯度利用下的最优差别定价决策

由于废旧动力电池具有梯度利用的潜质,将回收的废旧电池按照性能剩余进行分类,并通过博弈理论分析动力电池梯度利用下的最优差别定价决策机制。创建废旧动力电池梯度利用的差别定价模型,并在此基础上,就供应链不同决策条件下的最优差别定价等问题展开研究,得到各决策条件下的最优定价策略及最优利润,再引入优化契约对供应链中的低效率问题进行优化。最后通过算例分析论证文章命题的正确性和优化契约的有效性。     

Towards a Conceptual Sustainable Packaging Development Model: A Corrugated Box Case Study

Corrugated package designers are focused on balancing the need for product protection, material use efficiency and the packaging material's impact on the environment in the supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual sustainable packaging model that integrates the variables of technical design, supply chain systems and environmental factors and then use the model to identify to improve upon corrugated container design. A model was developed, from the extant literature, and a case study was performed on a corrugated container. This is believed to be a unique integrated model of most relevant agents related to the design and implementation of a corrugated box through a supply chain from design to potential post‐consumer reuse. From this study, we found opportunities to improve the environmental design of the corrugated container through four ex ante design stages, and two ex post facto supply chain stages. Further, research can evaluate and refine this model via a ‘live supply chain’ for use in guiding corrugated box material selection design and reuse/recycling. Integration of the design criterion for a unit load in the supply chain creates opportunity to observe the packaging system holistically. Waste in the manufacturing process and CO₂ emissions are traced along the material flow until the end of its useful life to provide an overall picture of the packaging system. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于批发价定价权转移的制造商渠道选择

制造商的批发价定价权发生转移会带来供应链绩效增加和制造商利润降低。利用这一供应链特征,给出了制造商渠道选择的数理方法。制造商在零售商具有/不具有批发价定价权的渠道选择中,潜在的市场规模是关键的选择因素。研究表明:市场规模相同时,制造商会选择拥有批发价定价权的渠道;当拥有批发价定价权的零售商拥有较大市场规模时,制造商会选择该供应链渠道,而此时对供应链双方都具有价值。     

A distributed approximation approach for solving the sustainable supply chain network design problem

This paper introduces a comprehensive Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model for a sustainable supply chain network design problem, and an efficient Distributed Approximation Approach (DAA) to solve it approximately. We study a multi-echelon, multi-product and multi-modal supply chain with different transportation modes. Besides relevant costs in the supply chain such as procurement, production and distribution cost, we also explicitly consider the environmental footprint, represented by carbon emissions and water consumption from production and transportation. The approximation approach is a decomposition-based method. First, the original problem is divided into a partner selection sub-problem and a transportation planning sub-problem. Then multiple filter mechanisms are used to remove potentially infeasible solutions, and an approximate value of the objective function is calculated for each of the remaining solutions to perform a further selection. The one with the lowest approximation is chosen to be applied with a branch-and-bound method. Finally, the algorithm is paralleled and implemented in Apache Spark distributed computing framework to further improve efficiency. Experimental results show that the proposed DAA can provide high quality solutions compared to the optimal solutions of the MILP model with mostly a negligible relative gap and solve large instances in much shorter time than CPLEX. Moreover, in our numerical study, we also compare the results of our model with another version of the model that does not take the environmental footprint into consideration. The results show that explicitly incorporating environmental footprint results in a substantial decrease of CO₂ emissions and water consumption at a negligible cost increase. This insight may be of interest to managers and other decision makers and policy makers.     

A dynamic programming approach to integrated assembly planning and supplier assignment with lead time constraints

As manufacturers face fierce competition in the global market, responsiveness has become an important competitiveness factor in addition to quality and cost. One essential responsiveness strategy is to reduce product development and lead times by integrating assembly planning with supplier assignment. This paper addresses the problem of integrated assembly and supply chain design under lead-time constraints by formulating and solving an optimisation problem with minimal total supply chain costs. This new time-constrained joint optimisation problem belongs to an NP-hard resource-constrained scheduling problem. To model this problem effectively, we develop a novel Hyper AND/OR graph and apply it for integrating assembly and supply chain decisions. We also develop a dynamic programming model and associated algorithm in order to solve the integrated optimisation problem with pseudo-polynomial time complexity in practice. Numerical case studies validate that the methods developed can solve the integrated decision-making problem optimally and efficiently. This paper overcomes the limitations of previous studies on concurrent assembly decomposition and supplier selection, which optimises cost without time constraints. The models and results of this research can be applied to a variety of areas including assembly design, maintenance module planning and supply chain restructuring.     

Dynamic supply chain decisions based on networked sensor data: an application in the chilled food retail chain

With large volume of product flows and complex supply chain processes, more data than ever before is being generated and collected in supply chains through various tracking and sensory technologies. The purpose of this study is to show a potential scenario of using a prototype tracking tool that facilitate the utilisation of sensor data, which is often unstructured and enormous in nature, to support supply chain decisions. The research investigates the potential benefits of the chilled food chain management innovation through sensor data driven pricing decisions. Data generated and recorded through the sensor network are used to predict the remaining shelf-life of perishable foods. Numerical analysis is conducted to examine the benefit of proposed approach under various operational situations and product features. The research findings demonstrate a way of modelling pricing and potential of performance improvement in chilled food chains to provide a vision of smooth transfer and implementation of the sensor data driven supply chain management. The research finding would encourage firms in the food industry to explore innovation opportunities from big data and develop proper data driven strategies to improve their competitiveness.     

考虑公平关切的双渠道供应链平台合作决策

为探讨制造商与转销型以及与代销型平台的合作问题,应用制造商主导下的Stackelberg博弈模型针对零售商具有横向、纵向和双向3种公平关切情况的供应链进行决策分析。以算例形式比较不同公平关切系数对供应链成员定价及利润的影响情况,进一步讨论制造商的平台选择策略。研究表明,零售商公平关切倾向并不总是有利于提高自身的利润;从绝对利润来看,横向公平关切越大,对于与转销型平台合作的制造商更有利;纵向公平关切越大,制造商与代运营型平台合作更有利。从相对利润来看,高横向−低纵向公平关切下,制造商倾向于与转销型平台合作;低横向−高纵向公平关切下,制造商倾向于与代销型平台合作。     

虚拟企业管理中伙伴选择问题的数学模型

虚拟企业能够快速适应市场变化并能更有效地共享合作伙伴的资源,因此它正在成为越来越重要的组织管理单位。虚拟企业管理中的伙伴选择问题广泛出现在诸如企业动态结盟、任务指派、投资组合、敏捷制造和供应链管理等领域。本文建立了虚拟企业管理中伙伴选择问题的一个0-1规划数学模型。该模型涉及项目施工的先后次序和项目资金的动态支付,所建立的模型符合工程实际。它是进一步分析和解决伙伴选择问题的基础。