The role of spot market in a decentralised supply chain under random yield

We consider a decentralised supply chain with demand uncertainty, wherein a manufacturer sells a single product that consists of two components to the end consumer through an independent distributor. Assume that one component has a random yield, the manufacturer may rely on the spot market to replenish any shortage components after the random yield is realised. We identify the optimal product order, component production and replenishment decisions under two different situations. One is the traditional arrangement that the distributor decides the product procurement quantity and the manufacturer chooses the production quantity. The other is vendor-managed inventory (VMI) arrangement in which the manufacturer is responsible for both the order and the production decisions. The results show that the role of spot market can effectively offset the negative effects from production yield’s, market demand’s and component spot price’s variances. Consequently, the spot market leads to the cooperation between the manufacturer and the distributor, and improves the channel’s overall performance, in particular under the VMI arrangement when the wholesale price is sufficiently high.