Improving reliability of a shared supplier with competition and spillovers

Supplier reliability is a key determinant of a manufacturer’s competitiveness. It reflects a supplier’s capability of order fulfillment, which can be measured by the percentage of order quantity delivered in a given time window. A perfectly reliable supplier delivers an amount equal to the order placed by its customer, while an unreliable supplier may deliver an amount less than the amount ordered. Therefore, when suppliers are unreliable, manufacturers often have incentives to help suppliers improve delivery reliability. Suppliers, however, often work with multiple manufacturers and the benefit of enhanced reliability may spill over to competing manufacturers. In this study, we explore how potential spillover influences manufacturers’ incentives to improve supplier’s reliability. We consider two manufacturers that compete with imperfectly substitutable products on Type I service level (i.e., in-stock probability). The manufacturers share a common supplier who, due to variations in production quality or yield, is unreliable. Manufacturers may exert efforts to improve the supplier’s reliability in the sense that the delivered quantity is stochastically larger after improvement. We develop a two-stage model that encompasses supplier improvement, uncertain supply and random demand in a competitive setting. In this complex model, we characterize the manufacturers’ equilibrium in-stock probability. Moreover, we characterize sufficient conditions for the existence of the equilibrium of the manufacturers’ improvement efforts. Finally, we numerically test the impact of market characteristics on the manufacturers’ equilibrium improvement efforts. We find that a manufacturer’s equilibrium improvement effort usually declines in market competition, market uncertainty or spillover effect, although its expected equilibrium profit typically increases in spillover effect.     

Integrated optimization of customer and supplier logistics at Robert Bosch LLC

Large automotive supply chains typically involve manufacturers pulling materials from their suppliers along the chain, usually by using round-trip truckload routes. The return trips on these routes are used to return empty containers back to the suppliers. The mismatch between the amount of materials and empty containers results in underutilization of the return trips. A supplier can utilize this unused capacity by identifying a subset of promising customer routes that can be combined with its existing supplier routes to save overall costs of the system. Such an integration also leads to other supply chain coordination benefits such as the potential of using crossdocks, more frequent milkruns and ensuing reductions in inventories.     

Supply quality management with wholesale price and revenue-sharing contracts under horizontal competition

In a number of industries (e.g., the airplane industry, aerospace industry, auto industry, or computer industry), certain suppliers essentially have a monopoly on the production technology for key components, and inevitably manufacturers in these industries have common suppliers. A key part of manufacturers’ work with suppliers concerns improving the quality of their respective products, which gives rise to a collaborative activity usually termed as “supply quality management”. When the manufacturers are competitors, they do not wish to see a common supplier dividing his involvement in quality improvement unequally between themselves and their rivals. However, as the suppliers collaborate with several manufacturers, it is highly questionable whether their efforts will be strictly equivalent for each manufacturer. In this paper, a non-cooperative dynamic game is formulated in which a single supplier collaborates with two manufacturers on design quality improvements for their respective products. The manufacturers compete for market demand both on price and design quality. The paper analyzes how each party should allocate resources for quality improvement over time. In order to take into account the potential coordinating power of the compensation scheme adopted in this type of decentralized setting, we compare the possible outcomes under a wholesale price contract and a revenue-sharing contract.     

供应中断风险下采购与定价决策分析

供应中断是供应链上的企业可能面临的问题,运用合理的采购策略可以帮助企业有效缓解供应中断风险。本文研究了供应中断下供应商和制造商之间的纵向竞争和两个制造商之间的横向竞争问题。供应商制定批发价,两个制造商采用不同的采购策略进行产量博弈,其中一个制造商采用紧急双源订货策略,另一个采用可靠单源订货策略。论文采用了多阶段博弈模型,分析了制造商之间的合谋与竞争两种行为,求出了供应商和制造商的最优决策,比较了这两种行为对供应商和制造商的影响。通过数值分析,讨论了成本参数和可靠性参数对于最优订货量的影响以及对于采用不同订货策略的制造商期望利润的影响。     

Cooperation in assembly systems: The role of knowledge sharing networks

Process improvement plays a significant role in reducing production costs over the life cycle of a product. We consider the role of process improvement in a decentralized assembly system in which a buyer purchases components from several first-tier suppliers. These components are assembled into a finished product, which is sold to the downstream market. The assembler faces a deterministic demand/production rate and the suppliers incur variable inventory costs and fixed setup production costs. In the first stage of the game, which is modeled as a non-cooperative game among suppliers, suppliers make investments in process improvement activities to reduce the fixed production costs. Upon establishing a relationship with the suppliers, the assembler establishes a knowledge sharing network – this network is implemented as a series of meetings among suppliers and also mutual visits to their factories. These meetings facilitate the exchange of best practices among suppliers with the expectation that suppliers will achieve reductions in their production costs from the experiences learned through knowledge sharing. We model this knowledge exchange as a cooperative game among suppliers in which, as a result of cooperation, all suppliers achieve reductions in their fixed costs. In the non-cooperative game, the suppliers anticipate the cost allocation that results from the cooperative game in the second stage by incorporating the effect of knowledge sharing in their cost functions. Based on this model, we investigate the benefits and challenges associated with establishing a knowledge sharing network. We identify and compare various cost allocation mechanisms that are feasible in the cooperative game and show that the system optimal investment levels can be achieved only when the most efficient supplier receives the incremental benefits of the cost reduction achieved by other suppliers due to the knowledge transfer.     

Integrated inventory management and supplier base reduction in a supply chain with multiple uncertainties

This paper considers a manufacturing supply chain with multiple suppliers in the presence of multiple uncertainties such as uncertain material supplies, stochastic production times, and random customer demands. The system is subject to supply and production capacity constraints. We formulate the integrated inventory management policy for raw material procurement and production control using the stochastic dynamic programming approach. We then investigate the supplier base reduction strategies and the supplier differentiation issue under the integrated inventory management policy. The qualitative relationships between the supplier base size, the supplier capabilities and the total expected cost are established. Insights into differentiating the procurement decisions to different suppliers are provided. The model further enables us to quantitatively achieve the trade-off between the supplier base reduction and the supplier capability improvement, and quantify the supplier differentiation in terms of procurement decisions. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the results.     

Supply chain scheduling: Sequence coordination

A critical issue in supply chain management is coordinating the decisions made by decision makers at different stages, for example a supplier and one or several manufacturers. We model this issue by assuming that both the supplier and each manufacturer have an ideal schedule, determined by their own costs and constraints. An interchange cost is incurred by the supplier or a manufacturer whenever the relative order of two jobs in its actual schedule is different from that in its ideal schedule. An intermediate storage buffer is available to resequence the jobs between the two stages. We consider the problems of finding an optimal supplier's schedule, an optimal manufacturer's schedule, and optimal schedules for both. The objective functions we consider are the minimization of total interchange cost, and of total interchange plus buffer storage cost. We describe efficient algorithms for all the supplier's and manufacturers’ problems, as well as for a special case of the joint scheduling problem. The running time of these algorithms is polynomial in both the number of jobs and the number of manufacturers. Finally, we identify conditions under which cooperation between the supplier and a manufacturer reduces their total cost.     

基于双边匹配-动态博弈的碳减排技术投资决策

在Cap-and-Trade规制下,本文通过匹配-博弈机制研究双寡头制造商(寡头)碳减排技术投资决策问题,考虑了碳交易(CET)过程。从纵向角度,构建寡头与碳减排技术供应商(供应商)的双边匹配模型,研究寡头最佳碳减排技术选择、供应商最佳投资者选择问题;从横向角度,以产量为决策变量,以供应商技术研发人员的努力程度为辅助变量,构建双寡头Stackelberg动态博弈模型,以确定最优产量和碳减排技术投资决策,有效实现碳减排。最后,通过数值模拟实验加以论证。研究发现,第一,寡头-供应商匹配对的整体期望效用与CET价格存在正相关关系;第二,寡头环境绩效对自身技术应用效率较敏感,而对对手技术应用效率不敏感;第三,CET实施与否会直接影响寡头-供应商匹配对效用最大化目标的实现。     

Heuristics for sourcing from multiple suppliers with alternative quantity discounts

In this paper, we analyze the impact of supplier pricing schemes and supplier capacity limitations on the optimal sourcing policy for a single firm. We consider the situation where the total quantity to be procured for a single period is known by the firm and communicated to the supplier set. In response to this communication, each supplier quotes a price and a capacity limit in terms of a maximum quantity that can be supplied to the buyer. Based on this information, the buyer makes a quantity allocation decision among the suppliers and corresponding to this decision is the choice of a subset of suppliers who will receive an order. Based on industry observations, a variety of supplier pricing schemes from the constituent group of suppliers are analyzed, including linear discounts, incremental units discounts, and all units discounts. Given the complexity of the optimization problem for certain types of pricing schemes, heuristic solution methodologies are developed to identify a quantity allocation decision for the firm. Through an extensive computational comparison, we find that these heuristics generate near-optimal solutions very quickly. Data from a major office products retailer is used to illustrate the resulting sourcing strategies given different pricing schemes and capacity limitations of suppliers in this industry. We find for the case of capacity constrained suppliers, the optimal quantity allocations for two complex pricing schemes (linear discount, and incremental units discount) are such that at most one selected supplier will receive an order quantity that is less than its capacity.     

基于双层博弈模型的民用航空产业链研究

本文针对民用航空市场中的大飞机制造商及航空发动机制造商建立双层博弈模型。在上层模型中,大飞机制造商以市场利润为目标决定其产量及对各发动机供应商的采购量;在下层模型中,航空发动机供应商通过求解一个优化问题决定其自身产量。在求解过程中,将下层优化问题转化为KKT条件,并作为上层优化问题的约束条件,使用分布式迭代算法(Distributed iterative algorithm),进行编程求解。本文通过求解波音-空客双寡头格局下的市场均衡对模型的有效性进行验证,并进一步分析国产大飞机C919量产后市场均衡的变化。     

考虑绿色等级和递送时间的双渠道绿色供应链

考虑了双渠道绿色供应链的定价决策问题.在集中式、分散式和协调合同条件下分别建立了双渠道绿色供应链的最优定价模型,给出了零售商和供应商的最优定价策略.研究表明,引入利润共享合同后零售商和供应商都会比在分散式决策下获得更多的利润.最后通过数值算例对不同条件下的模型进行了比较.     

Risk sharing in the supplier relations for the Taiwanese automotive industry

This study attempts to develop a supplier's risk sharing contract to gain an understanding of risk sharing for the automotive industry in Taiwan. The existing research has examined revenue-sharing contracts between retailers and manufacturers. However, the study of suppliers’ risk-sharing contracts between manufacturers and suppliers is neglected. This paper first employs a double moral hazard framework to obtain an optimal contract, and then uses the derived model to establish research hypotheses. The empirical analysis shows that manufacturers offer suppliers a type of supplier's risk sharing contract while maintaining long-term relationships with suppliers. The results also support the hypotheses that manufacturers absorb more risk when the suppliers are more uncertainty, more risk aversion and lower moral hazard, and suggest that manufacturers would be willing to absorb more risk as they deepen their involvement in the technological development of suppliers.     

The impact of cost uncertainty on the location of a distribution center

The location of a distribution center (DC) is a key consideration for the design of supply chain networks. When deciding on it, firms usually allow for transportation costs, but not supplier prices. We consider simultaneously the location of a DC and the choice of suppliers offering different, possibly random, prices for a single product. A buying firm attempts to minimize the sum of the price charged by a chosen supplier, and inbound and outbound transportation costs. No costs are incurred for switching suppliers. We first derive a closed-form optimal location for the case of a demand-populated unit line between two suppliers offering deterministic prices. We then let one of the two suppliers offer a random price. If the price follows a symmetric and unimodal distribution, the optimal location is closer to the supplier with a lower mean price. We also show the dominance of high variability: the buyer can decrease the total cost more for higher price variability for any location. The dominance result holds for normal, uniform, and gamma distributions. We propose an extended model with more than two suppliers on a plane and show that the dominance result still holds. From numerical examples for a line and a plane, we observe that an optimal location gets closer to the center of gravity of demands as the variability of any supplier’s price increases.     

Coordination of cooperative cost-reduction efforts in a supply chain partnership

We study cooperative cost reduction in a decentralized supply chain with a single manufacturer and multiple suppliers. The manufacturer assembles components that are procured from the suppliers to produce a final product. Both the manufacturer and the suppliers invest in reducing the unit production costs of the components. We see that neither of the two well-known conventional contracts, the wholesale price contract and the cost-plus pricing contract, generally coordinates the supply chain, i.e., under both of these types of contract, the individual optimal cost-reduction efforts of players deviate from the centralized system-optimal solution. However, this result is not surprising because these contracts encourage either only the manufacturer or only the suppliers alone to invest in cost reduction.     

销售商出售看跌期权的供应链优化研究

在由一个供应商和一个销售商组成的单期两级供应链中,处于主导地位的销售商以其卖场所具有的销售能力参与供应链合作,并从销售的每一个产品中获取既定收益。同时,销售商还向供应商出售建立在产品销售量保障基础上的看跌期权,以激励供应商参与供应链合作。论文对上述情形的销售商出售看跌期权的供应链合作问题进行了研究,通过建模与优化分析,证明了在销售商提供看跌期权的供应链合作中,供应商存在唯一的最优生产批量和看跌期权采购量,以及销售商存在最优的从每一单位产品销售中获取的既定收益。论文还揭示了销售商提供看跌期权,虽然无法实现供应链协调,但可以实现供应链参与企业所获得的收益与其所承担的风险相匹配。最后,论文论证了在销售商出售看跌期权机制下,供应链存在收益损失较小的理想合作区域。     

An a posteriori decision support methodology for solving the multi-criteria supplier selection problem

This research presents a novel, state-of-the-art methodology for solving a multi-criteria supplier selection problem considering risk and sustainability. It combines multi-objective optimization with the analytic network process to take into account sustainability requirements of a supplier portfolio configuration. To integrate ‘risk’ into the supplier selection problem, we develop a multi-objective optimization model based on the investment portfolio theory introduced by Markowitz. The proposed model is a non-standard portfolio selection problem with four objectives: (1) minimizing the purchasing costs, (2) selecting the supplier portfolio with the highest logistics service, (3) minimizing the supply risk, and (4) ordering as much as possible from those suppliers with outstanding sustainability performance. The optimization model, which has three linear and one quadratic objective function, is solved by an algorithm that analytically computes a set of efficient solutions and provides graphical decision support through a visualization of the complete and exactly-computed Pareto front (a posteriori approach). The possibility of computing all Pareto-optimal supplier portfolios is beneficial for decision makers as they can compare all optimal solutions at once, identify the trade-offs between the criteria, and study how the different objectives of supplier portfolio configuration may be balanced to finally choose the composition that satisfies the purchasing company's strategy best. The approach has been applied to a real-world supplier portfolio configuration case to demonstrate its applicability and to analyze how the consideration of sustainability requirements may affect the traditional supplier selection and purchasing goals in a real-life setting.     

The Effect of Acceptance Sampling and Risk Aversion on the Quality Delivered by Suppliers

Firms often use acceptance sampling to monitor the quality of the raw materials and components delivered by suppliers. In this paper, we use numerical methods to examine how a risk averse supplier reacts to the acceptance sampling plan used by a customer. We assume that the supplier produces and delivers a quality level that maximizes the supplier's expected utility. We examine the sensitivity of the optimal delivered quality to changes in the price, to changes in the supplier's level of risk aversion, and to changes in the parameters of the customer's sampling plan. We conclude that risk averse suppliers deliver higher quality, that higher capability suppliers do not necessarily deliver higher quality, and that the optimal quality is sensitive to the lot size. We also conclude that since the risk of rejection motivates suppliers to improve quality, customers have an economic justification for using acceptance sampling even when there is no statistical justification.     

Order splitting in single sourcing with scheduled-release orders

Traditional inventory models assume that a buyer places one order with a supplier in each order cycle. A large number of researchers have studied the benefits of dual sourcing such that an order quantity is split and placed simultaneously with two suppliers. We show that many of the benefits of dual sourcing are due to order splitting rather than using two suppliers. We investigate order splitting with one supplier such that the first part of the order is sent out immediately but the second part of the order is released later (scheduled-release). Through extensive computational results, we show that in many situations where dual sourcing or the use of a cheaper supplier would be cost effective, single sourcing with order splitting using scheduled-release orders is better. The paper provides a quantitative rationale to continue with one supplier. We also summarize the qualitative reasons to prefer single sourcing or multiple sourcing.     

供应商竞争下的供应链多边谈判

探讨了单买方多供应商基于供应链利润分配的多边谈判,其中的供应商具有不同讨价还价力.多边谈判程序为买方与单个供应商轮流进行双边谈判.此种情形下,供应商参与双边谈判的顺序影响供应商所获谈判利润,同时基于讨价还价力供应商通过向买方支付排位费用竞争双边谈判位置.结果给出了供应商竞争下多边谈判的唯一均衡,以及均衡状态下各方所获利润.本文构建了供应商讨价还价力不同情形下供应链多边谈判分析框架,并指出讨价还价力的不同使能力强的供应商通过竞争双边谈判位置而获利.     

随机需求下多供应商和多零售商的生产-库存-运输联合优化模型

考虑随机需求下多供应商和多零售商的生产-库存-运输联合优化问题.在联合优化时,首先利用最近邻算法将各零售商分成不同区域,分区后问题转化为随机需求下单供应商对多零售商的生产-库存-运输联合优化问题.在每个分区内,由供应商统一决策其分区内各零售商的送货量和送货时间.利用粒子群算法和模拟退火算法相结合的两阶段算法求出最优送货量、最优运输路径和最大期望总利润.然后采用收入共享契约将增加的利润合理分配给各供应商和各零售商,使各方利润都得到增加,从而促使各方愿意合作.通过数值算例验证了联合优化模型优于独立决策模型.