Coordination of the supply chain of seasonal products

Because of the demand uncertainty of seasonal products, the retailer prefers to place an order as late as possible, so that he can have enough time to collect more information, which is helpful to reduce demand forecast error. On the other hand, the manufacturer has limited production capacity in general cases. The late ordering would result in insufficient production times, thus increasing the production cost. Such a conflict exists universally in a supply chain, especially in the seasonal products' supply chain. As a result, coordination between the retailer and the manufacturer becomes very important. In the paper, based on the traditional operating system, an improved operating system is introduced whose impact to both bodies of a supply chain is examined under the condition of information symmetry. The result shows that the manufacturer may not be better off or well off, although the retailer's performance is improved. Then, some profit compensation plans are designed so as to make the operating system Pareto improve     

Optimal lead time policy for short life cycle products under Conditional Value-at-Risk criterion

The lead time reduction problem in a supply chain with a risk-averse retailer and a risk-neutral manufacturer for short life cycle products is studied in this paper. Lead time can be reduced by additional crashing cost to enhance forecast accuracy of uncertain demand. Under Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) criterion, the effects of decision maker’s risk aversion and additional crashing cost for lead time reduction on optimal decisions are analyzed. Moreover, a revenue sharing contract is proposed to achieve supply chain coordination. The results suggest that when the retailer is more risk-averse and when forecast error is larger, the retailer tends to select a shorter lead time despite the higher wholesale price charged by the manufacturer. However, if the retailer is mildly risk-averse and the forecast error is small, he might not select to shorten the lead time because of associated additional crashing cost. Thus, the retailer should carefully balance the benefit against the cost of lead time reduction. In addition, we find lead time reduction is conductive to improving supply chain efficiency compared to the case without lead time reduction. Revenue sharing contract can achieve supply chain coordination and Pareto improvement for both supply chain agents. The improved utilities increase as the decision maker is more risk-averse and the forecast error is higher.     

Information sharing and the impact of shutdown policy in a supply chain with market disruption risk in the social media era

This paper investigates the information sharing issue in a simple supply chain with one manufacturer and one retailer. The market demand might be subject to disruption, but the retailer can get access to some signals from social media platforms to better forecast the market state (regular or disrupted) even though the signals might be not fully reliable. Different from the traditional information sharing literature, we incorporate the shutdown policy into our model. We first characterize the equilibrium outcomes under both with- and without-information sharing cases and then examine the players’ preferences over information sharing or not. It is shown that when the level of information reliability is relatively low, the manufacturer prefers the information sharing cases, whereas the retailer prefers the no-sharing case, and information sharing does harm to the whole channel. In addition, our results show that as the level of information reliability increases, the manufacturer benefits more but the retailer and the whole channel lose more from information sharing. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, when the level of information reliability falls into an intermediary interval, the retailer will have an incentive to share information, and information sharing will benefit the manufacturer and the whole supply chain. However, the benefits from information sharing decrease as the level of information reliability increases. When the level of information reliability is sufficiently high, both firms are indifferent between the information sharing and no-sharing cases. Additionally, the incorporation of the shutdown policy has important implications for the information sharing issue, and thus, the policy should not be overlooked.     

基于促销投资的供应链应急协调研究

研究了由单制造商和单零售商组成的供应链中,零售阶段需求依赖于零售商的促销投资水平,当制造商的生产成本和零售商的存货投资成本同时出现扰动时的应急协调问题。通过对生产成本和存货投资成本的扰动程度进行情形分析,提出了不同程度扰动时的最优应对策略和协调机制。该机制为集中供应链系统中的决策者和制造商在面临生产成本和存货投资成本同时扰动时提供了理论决策依据。     

Commitment decisions with demand information updating and a capital‐constrained supplier

In this paper, we study a single two‐echelon supply chain with a capital‐constrained supplier (manufacturer) and a retailer. The supply chain faces a stochastic demand. As the production lead time is long, the market demand is updated during the supplier's production lead time. The supplier needs to determine the production quantity based on the original demand forecast, and the retailer needs to determine the time and quantity to order. The retailer can place an order before the supplier's production (preorder) or after the supplier's production (regular order). We prove the existence of optimal equilibrium solutions under both preorder and regular order strategies. We analytically investigate the order strategies for the supply chain agents under perfect and worthless market information updating. Moreover, we numerically analyze the impact of the information updating quality on the order strategy selection, and the effect of exogenous shocks on the supply chain agents.     

Coordination in a retailer‐dominated supply chain with a risk‐averse manufacturer under marketing dependency

In this paper, a combined contract composed of option and cost sharing is proposed to investigate coordination and risk‐sharing issues of the supply chain consisting of a dominant retailer and a risk‐averse manufacturer. Demand faced by the retailer is stochastic in nature and dependent on marketing effort. We adopt the conditional value‐at‐risk (CVaR) criterion to model risk aversion of the manufacturer, and derive the optimal strategy for each member with a Stackelberg game in which the retailer acts as the leader. It is verified that the combined contract can coordinate the supply chain and achieve Pareto‐improvement. Moreover, the dominant retailer can allocate the system‐wide profit arbitrarily only by option price in the premise of coordination. It is worth mentioning that coordination of the supply chain is reachable only when the manufacturer is low in risk aversion, and the manufacturer's risk aversion is a significant element for contract design and profit allocation.     

Information sharing under different warranty policies with cost sharing in supply chains

In practice, it is found that a product warranty can be provided by either the supplier or the manufacturer. As supply chains are increasingly integrated today, warranty costs are usually shared between the supplier and the manufacturer. In this paper, we model two different warranty policies based on which party provides the warranty: manufacturer warranty and supplier warranty. Considering the demand uncertainty and demand forecast, we analyze the information sharing strategy under these two warranty policies. Our results show that the manufacturer has an incentive to share the demand forecast information under both warranty policies when the cost efficiency in providing a warranty is high, which is different from the existing literature on the incentive for demand information sharing in the supply chain. Moreover, we find that it will hurt the party who determines the warranty period but benefit the other party.     

需求依赖减排水平和价格的供应链决策与协调机制

针对由一个低碳产品制造商与一个零售商组成的供应链, 考虑需求同时受减排水平和销售价格的影响, 分别研究寄售契约、收益共享契约以及收益共享与减排成本共担3 种契约下供应链企业的优化决策, 并进一步探讨当需求的确定部分为和式、随机部分服从均匀分布时的供应链系统的最优决策. 从理论上证明了制造商与零售商之间的合作利于促进减排水平的提升, 也利于供应链系统期望总利润的增加. 最后, 探讨了不同参数对协调供应链绩效的影响.

     

Coordinating two-period ordering and advertising policies in a dynamic market with stochastic demand

In this paper, we study the optimal two-stage advertising and ordering policies and the channel coordination issues in a supply chain composed of one manufacturer and one retailer. The manufacturer sells a short-life-cycle product through the retailer facing stochastic demand in dynamic markets characterised by price declines and product obsolescence. Following a two-period newsvendor framework, we develop two members’ optimal ordering and advertising models under both the centralised and decentralised settings, and present the closed-form solutions to the developed models as well. Moreover, we design a two-period revenue-sharing contract, and develop sufficient conditions such that the channel coordination can be achieved and a win–win outcome can be guaranteed. Our analysis suggests that the centralised decision creates an incentive for the retailer to increase the advertising investments in two periods and put the purchase forward, but the decentralised decision mechanism forces the retailer to decrease the advertising investments in two periods and postpone/reduce its purchase in the first period. This phenomenon becomes more evident when demand variability is high.     

产出和需求不确定下三级供应链契约协调模型

研究基于供应商和制造商随机产出以及零售商随机需求的单一供应商、制造商和零售商组成的三级供应链契约协调问题, 构建并分析集中和分散条件下供应链系统的最优决策模型, 证明随机产出和需求下运用风险共担契约可以使分散期望利润达到集中决策的水平. 在数值算例中, 通过模型和契约参数的分析, 阐述了风险共担契约协调的有效性.     

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.     

需求信息不对称下的双渠道供应链合作广告投资决策分析

研究制造商主导的Stackelberg 博弈下双渠道供应链的合作广告策略, 分析信息不对称及双渠道对供应链合作广告投资决策的影响. 研究表明, 零售商在具有需求信息优势时会谎报需求信息, 并且在一定条件下其谎报决策会降低制造商的利润, 但能提高供应链的利润, 这种情况下制造商无法通过激励合同促使零售商共享信息. 另外, 在最优合作广告策略下, 当直销渠道与分销渠道所占市场份额的分配比例小于一定值时, 制造商采取双渠道会使供应链参与者均受益.

     

Contract efficiency for a decentralized supply chain in the presence of quality improvement

In this paper, we study a joint pricing and product quality decision problem in a decentralized supply chain consisting of one manufacturer and one retailer. Although the manufacturer decides the product quality with an associated cost, the retailer decides the retail price. We aim to study and compare different contract formats for this decentralized supply chain. There is a trade‐off in the choice of contracts: simpler format contract (with a few parameters) is less complicated, but the contract efficiency is low. We start with the simplest one‐parameter contract: a wholesale price contract that serves as the benchmark. We then study how contract efficiency can be improved by adding one more parameter. Specifically, we consider three two‐parameter contracts that are commonly used in reality: two‐part tariff contract, revenue‐sharing contract, and effort cost sharing contract. We find that the contract efficiency is improved under all the three contracts, but in different ways: the improvement in contract efficiency under each of them dominates the other two when manufacturer's quality improvement effectiveness is relatively low, moderate, and high, respectively. Furthermore, through numerical examples, we find that under some cases, a choice from these three two‐parameter contracts can achieve a close‐to‐perfect efficiency (>85%). Finally, we investigate whether a combination of the three two‐parameter contracts can achieve coordination. Interestingly, we find that only the combination of effort cost sharing contract and revenue‐sharing contract can achieve coordination, whereas combinations of either of them and two‐part tariff contract cannot.     

限额与交易下考虑战略顾客行为的供应链决策与协调

研究由一个受限额与交易政策约束的制造商和一个面临同质战略顾客的零售商组成的两级供应链决策与协调问题. 分别研究得到了限额与交易政策下一体化(包括理性预期均衡和数量承诺两种情形) 和分散化供应链最优决策和最大期望利润, 并与不考虑限额与交易政策的情形进行对比分析, 发现限额与交易政策使得供应链最优产量降低、最优价格升高、碳排放量减少. 最后, 以数量承诺情形为基准, 基于收益分享合同设计了供应链协调策略.

     

基于期权的供应链数量柔性契约决策模型

针对单个制造商和单个销售商组成的多周期单产品两级供应链协调问题, 建立了期权与数量柔性契约相结合的决策模型; 需求的不确定性通过有限的情境描述, 采用逐步对冲算法对基于情境的随机规划模型进行求解, 给出了销售商最优的期权购买量和初始订货量以及制造商最优的原材料采购量和产品生产量; 最后通过数值仿真实验验证了所提出模型的有效性.

     

Quantity flexibility contracts under Bayesian updating

In this paper, we consider a decentralized supply chain consisting of two independent players—a manufacturer and a retailer. Under a quantity flexibility contract, the retailer first proposes an initial forecast as the production reference to the manufacturer. Then she uses Bayesian procedure to update demand information, and makes ultimate purchase commitment, which is constrained by the negotiated flexibility and the manufacturer's production. We model the incentives of both parties and investigate the effect of flexibility ω, transfer price c and number of Bayesian updates n on the performance of two parties. Our theoretical analysis and numerical results show that given other parameters fixed, more flexibility always benefits the retailer, while the manufacturer can only benefit from very small quantity flexibility. In addition, this contract allows them to share the benefits from information updating.     

产量和需求随机下基于收益共享契约的供应链决策

针对产量和需求都随机的供应链, 在条件风险值(CVaR) 的度量准则下, 建立具有风险规避型零售商的供应链最优决策模型, 探讨收益共享契约下供应链协调的条件, 并进行了数值分析. 研究结果表明, 零售商的风险规避以及产量的不确定性将降低最优订购量及供应链效益; 收益共享契约可以优化产量和需求随机条件下的供应链运作效率, 并在一定条件下使供应链达到协调.

     

Supply chain model with price- and trade credit-sensitive demand under two-level permissible delay in payments

This article develops a single-manufacturer and single-retailer supply chain model under two-level permissible delay in payments when the manufacturer follows a lot-for-lot policy in response to the retailer's demand. The manufacturer offers a trade credit period to the retailer with the contract that the retailer must share a fraction of the profit earned during the trade credit period. On the other hand, the retailer provides his customer a partial trade credit which is less than that of the manufacturer. The demand at the retailer is assumed to be dependent on the selling price and the trade credit period offered to the customers. The average net profit of the supply chain is derived and an algorithm for finding the optimal solution is developed. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the coordination policy of the supply chain and examine the sensitivity of key model-parameters.     

Cooperative advertising in a capacitated manufacturer–retailer supply chain: a game‐theoretic approach

To achieve a more realistic understanding of how the supply chain's components interact, it is helpful to consider the operational limitations of the underlying supply chain while analyzing cooperative advertising. This paper studies cooperative advertising in a manufacturer–retailer supply chain under the practical operational assumption that the manufacturer's production capacity is limited. The retailer advertises locally, and the manufacturer advertises in national media and supports part of the retailer's promotional costs. Equilibria are determined under two different scenarios. In the first scenario, both retailer and manufacturer move simultaneously, while in the second scenario, they move sequentially, with the manufacturer being the leader. The sales function is a bivariate version of the diminishing returns response function. When the production capacity is unlimited, several important properties can be proven, which cannot be shown analytically for the existing sales functions. Considering the production‐capacity constraint leads to new managerial insights into cooperative advertising. For example, only if the production capacity is large enough, both manufacturer and retailer are better off under the second scenario than the first scenario. In other words, the sequential move is not necessarily Pareto‐improving when the production capacity is limited. It is also observed that, under the first scenario, there are multiple equilibria whenever the production capacity is not too high. Under the second scenario, the manufacturer supports the retailer only when the retailer's margin is relatively small compared to the manufacturer's margin and production capacity.     

零售商价格竞争下的最优决策与收益共享契约

研究由一个制造商与两个竞争零售商组成的两级供应链系统的最优决策及契约协调问题,其中每个零售商面临的需求是价格敏感和随机的.当随机需求分布具有递增失败率(IFR)时,竞争的零售商存在唯一最优的定价和订购决策,并给出了最优决策的解析表达式,证明了收益共享契约能使两个竞争零售商加盟的供应链达到协调及契约成立的条件.最后通过理论推导和数值分析给出了需求价格弹性系数对最优决策及协调的影响.