Supply chain analysis under a price-discount incentive scheme for electric vehicles

We investigate an automobile supply chain where a manufacturer and a retailer serve heterogeneous consumers with electric vehicles (EVs) under a government’s price-discount incentive scheme that involves a price discount rate and a subsidy ceiling. We show that the subsidy ceiling is more effective in influencing the optimal wholesale pricing decision of the manufacturer with a higher unit production cost. However, the discount rate is more effective for the manufacturer with a lower unit production cost. Moreover, the expected sales are increasing in the discount rate but may be decreasing in the subsidy ceiling. Analytic results indicate that an effective incentive scheme should include both a discount rate and a subsidy ceiling. We also derive the necessary condition for the most effective discount rate and subsidy ceiling that maximize the expected sales of EVs, and obtain a unique discount rate and subsidy ceiling that most effectively improve the manufacturer’s incentive for EV production.     

CDM机制下政府碳税及垄断企业最优定价与碳排放策略研究

考虑实施CDM(Clean Development Mechanism)低碳项目的生产型垄断企业与政府的单阶段斯坦克尔伯格博弈。其中政府为领导者,以碳税税率为决策变量,企业为跟随者,以低碳产品价格及CDM项目期内总的碳排放量为决策变量。政府以社会福利最大化为目标,制定碳税税率时考虑了企业不同税率范围下的最优碳排放策略。企业面对市场上不同低碳偏好的消费者,以利润最大化为目标,首先制定其低碳产品的最优价格,然后根据不同碳税范围制定相应的周期总排放量。分析表明,低碳产品的定价受消费者低碳产品认知度与碳税税率等因素的影响;碳排放量方面,相对不同的碳税水平,存在最低、最高及凹函数稳定点解。根据这三类排放策略分析了政府最优碳税取值范围并结合算例分析得出了一些建设性的结论。     

“公司+农户”型订单农业供应链的政府税收补贴机制

基于“公司+农户”型订单农业背景,引入“随行就市,保底收购”的合约价格方式并考虑农产品流通中的数量损耗,探究了政府向公司征税并将税收收入补贴给农户对于订单农业供应链决策及运作的影响。首先,在政府对农户的补贴系数外生时,以政府征税不补贴为基准模型,对比分析了政府征税不补贴和征税补贴两种情形下的均衡结果,发现:若公司对农产品深加工,则进项税率小于销项税率,政府对农户进行税收补贴,可激励农户提高生产量并促使公司降低保底价格,进而增加双方期望收益,即征税补贴是征税不补贴的帕累托改善;若公司对农产品初加工,进项税率等于销项税率,则税收补贴带来的收益全部被公司利用其强势地位所攫取,单纯的税收补贴难以实现农户增产增收的目的。随后,在政府补贴系数内生时,证明了深加工情形下存在唯一最优的税收补贴系数使得政府社会福利最大化,且最优的税收补贴系数随各参数的变化存在上下界。最后,引入数值算例验证了上述结论,同时发现,深加工情形下政府决策的最优税收补贴系数随流通损耗率的增加而减小,随销项税率和供应链边际利润率的增大而增大;社会福利和公司的期望收益对流通损耗率的变化较之农户的期望收益对其变化更为敏感。     

Optimization of production allocation and transportation of customer orders for a leading forest products company

A leading manufacturer of forest products with several production facilities located in geographical proximity to each other has recently acquired a number of new production plants in other regions/countries to increase its production capacity and expand its national and international markets. With the addition of this new capacity, the company wanted to know how to best allocate customer orders to its various mills to minimize the total cost of production and transportation. We developed mixed-integer programming models to jointly optimize production allocation and transportation of customer orders on a weekly basis. The models were run with real order files and the test results indicated the potential for significant cost savings over the company’s current practices. The company further customized the models, integrated them into their IT system and implemented them successfully. Besides the actual cost savings for the company, the whole process from the initial step of analyzing the problem, to developing, testing, customizing, integrating and finally implementing the models provided enhanced intelligence to sales staff.     

Optimal pricing,EOL (end of life) warranty,and spare parts manufacturing strategy amid product transition

We study firm’s strategy to determine its product price and warranty period, and plan the spare parts manufacturing so as to maximize its profit and at the same time to fulfill its commitment to providing the customer with the key part continuously over the relevant decision time horizon, i.e., the product’s life cycle plus its EOL service (warranty) period. To examine the research question, we develop and solve a two-stage optimal control theory model. From the numerical analysis, we infer as follows. It is not always true that the longer the EOL warranty period, the better for the company’s profitability, implying there exists an optimal EOL warranty period that balances all the relevant forces like market demand and cost structures. The relationship between optimal EOL warranty period and failure rate (defect rate) is concave: when the defect rate is moderate, the company has to increase its EOL warranty period as the defect rate increases so as to compensate for the deteriorating quality; but, when the defect rate is beyond a threshold level, the company needs to curtail its EOL warranty commitment as the defect rate increases in order to avoid excessive cost to service the failed parts. By depicting key dynamics in this managerial problem, this paper sheds light on how to make decision for optimal pricing and warranty when the product life cycle is finite and the company is obliged to provide after-sales services to customers for an extended period of time after the current product is no longer produced.     

A decision support for identifying crucial knowledge requiring capitalizing operation

Capitalizing on the company’s crucial knowledge is an important operation for company’s success. The first step in knowledge capitalizing is to identify the crucial knowledge for which capitalizing operation is required. The crucial knowledge identification is an ill-structured and multi-criteria problem. In this paper, the crucial knowledge identification problem is structured according to the well-known Simon’s decision making process. Then, a decision support system (DSS), called K-DSS, is developed to support this decision process. The main objectives of this paper are to introduce the crucial knowledge identification decision process, to present the conceptual and functional architectures of K-DSS and to illustrate its utility through a real-world case study conducted in an automobile company.     

环境税费政策下快递包装材料回收利用的最优决策及社会福利分析

本文在一个两阶段的决策模型中研究了政府环境税收政策下快递包装材料的回收利用问题,通过比较快递服务商在不同经营策略下的总利润和碳排放总量,刻画出不同环境税费水平下的最优经营策略选择。研究结果表明,当快递包装材料回收再利用的固定投资成本过高时,随着环境税费水平的不断升高,快递服务商并不一定总是选择绿色经营策略。此外,在这种情况下快递服务商即使选择了绿色经营策略也并不能总是带来碳排放的减少和环境的改善。而如果政府能够进行适当的固定投资补贴,则可有效地促进快递服务商选择并保持绿色经营策略,并且能够实现经济发展与环境保护的双赢。在引入单位碳排放的外部性成本后,本文分析了社会福利最大化下的最优环境税费水平。算例分析显示,政府的政策干预有可能同时实现社会福利最大化、快递服务商总利润的增加和碳排放总量的减少。     

The dynamics of price, quality and productivity improvement decisions

Although quality has received significant attention during the last decades and its economic benefits are beyond any doubt, lots of questions have remained unanswered as to how much, when, and in what to invest to maintain sustainable competitive advantage. A model is introduced here to guide a firm in addressing these questions. The firm produces a single product and operates in a market where monopolistic competition is effective. Demand for the product in the industry depends on both price and performance quality. Increasing productivity knowledge decreases unit production cost, but demand for the company’s product decreases over time, as competitors will be able to offer products with similar performance. Productivity and quality knowledge can be developed through induced and autonomous learning in order to strengthen company position. The paper provides an optimal control formulation of the problem and develops necessary conditions for optimality and characterizes the dynamics of optimal price, quality and investment decisions.     

Linking supply chain processes’ performance to a company’s financial strategic objectives

The main aim of this paper is to develop a performance measurement method which links supply chain (SC) processes’ performance to a company’s financial strategy through demonstrating and utilising the relationship between SC processes’ performance and a company’s financial performance.     

碳排放税收政策下供应链网络成员企业行为研究

针对三种碳税决策框架:分权碳税框架、集权碳税框架——固定阀值、集权碳税框架——弹性阀值,分别分析三种碳排放税收政策决策框架下供应链网络中成员企业收益的变化以及各企业间的交互行为,给出了各成员企业的均衡条件,并将其转化为变分不等式问题,建立碳排放税收政策下供应链网络成员企业博弈模型,并提出基于欧拉算法的模型求解方法。最后结合算例分析碳排放税收政策下供应链网络成员企业关于生产决策、分销决策、碳排放量的反应,研究为达到预期的环境目标,政府相关部门如何调整单位碳排放税,同时,根据成员企业相关经济指标的均衡结果,政府相关部门又如何调整碳排放的环境目标。     

Work effort, consumption, and portfolio selection: when the occupational choice matters

We consider a highly-qualified individual with respect to her choice between two distinct career paths. She can choose between a mid-level management position in a large company and an executive position within a smaller listed company with the possibility to directly affect the company’s share price. She invests in the financial market including the share of the smaller listed company. The utility maximizing strategy from consumption, investment, and work effort is derived in closed form for logarithmic utility. The power utility case is discussed as well. Conditions for the individual to pursue her career with the smaller listed company are obtained. The participation constraint is formulated in terms of the salary differential between the two positions. The smaller listed company can offer less salary. The salary shortfall is offset by the possibility to benefit from her work effort by acquiring own-company shares. This gives insight into aspects of optimal contract design. Our framework is applicable to the pharmaceutical and financial industry, and the IT sector.     

考虑交易费用和债务的再保险和投资问题

该文考虑了保险公司的再保险和投资在多种风险资产中的策略问题. 假设保险公司本身有着一定的债务, 债务的多少服从线性扩散方程. 保险公司可以通过再保险和将再保险之后的剩余资产投资在m种风险资产和一种无风险资产中降低其风险. 资产中风险资产的价格波动服从几何布朗运动, 其债务多少的演化也是依据布朗运动而上下波动. 该文考虑了风险资产与债务之间的相互关系, 考虑了在进行风险投资时的交易费用, 并且利用HJB方程求得保险公司的最大最终资产的预期指数效用, 给出了相应的最优价值函数和最优策略的数值解.     

Optimal production and shipment models for a single-vendor–single-buyer integrated system

This paper develops a more general production-inventory model for a single-vendor–single-buyer integrated system. Unlike the hitherto existing production-inventory models for the vendor–buyer system, the present model neither requires the buyer’s unit holding cost greater than the vendor’s nor assumes the structure of shipment policy. Secondly, the model is extended to the situation with shortages permitted, based on shortages being allowed to occur only for the buyer. Thirdly, the paper also presents a corresponding production-inventory model for a deteriorating item for the integrated system. The solution procedures are provided for finding the optimal production and shipment policies and illustrated with numerical examples. Three significant insights are shown: (1) no matter whether the buyer’s unit holding cost is greater than the vendor’s or not, the present model always performs best in reducing the average total cost as compared to the hitherto existing models; (2) if the buyer’s unit holding cost is less than the vendor’s, the optimal shipment policy for the integrated system will only comprise shipments with successive shipment sizes increasing by a fixed factor. It is different from that obtained by Hill [Hill, R.M., 1999. The optimal production and shipment policy for the single-vendor single-buyer integrated production-inventory problem. International Journal of Production Research 37, 2463–2475] for the opposite case; (3) when designing a single-vendor–single-buyer integrated system, making the buyer’s unit holding cost lower than the vendor’s is more beneficial to the system if shortages are not permitted to occur; otherwise it just reverses.     

Incentives and individual motivation in supervised work groups

This paper introduces and analyzes a model of supervised work group where subordinates decide how to exert their effort in complementary tasks while the supervisors decide incentives. Incentives may be a combination of individual and group-based ones. The optimality of incentives is analyzed when considering two different cost functions for subordinates. The two cost functions describe different individual motivations; comparing the resulting effort allocations and production optimality, we can relate them to different organizational theories. Our results provide a measure of how motivation among subordinates may affect production and incentives. Furthermore, the optimal incentives schemes are examined in terms of Adams’ equity theory.     

PariTOP: A goal programming-based software for real estate assessment

In Quebec's municipal taxation system, the tax burden is allocated according to the market value of properties. Determining the market values for housing inventories containing tens of thousands of properties is obviously a complex task with enormous implications in terms of the resources required and the quality of the resulting estimates. This article presents PariTOP, a decision-support system that uses mathematical programming in general and goal programming in particular to estimate the market value of large numbers of residential properties. PariTOP is the result of a partnership between the Communauté urbaine de Québec (CUQ), an administrative unit that comprises 12 cities, and Modellium, a Canadian company that develops decision-support systems.     

考虑促销努力与生产努力的供应链召回努力策略研究

考虑一条由单个供应商和单个制造商组成的二级供应链,面对产品召回事件,供应商和制造商都可以通过召回努力来降低召回事件发生的概率。本文研究了供应链最优召回努力策略,研究发现双方的召回努力与初始期望单位召回成本和潜在市场规模有关。当潜在市场规模和初始期望单位召回成本都较小时,双方均选择部分召回努力,当潜在市场规模和初始期望单位召回成本都较大时,双方均选择全部召回努力,否则,供应商选择全额召回努力而制造商选择部分召回努力。由于制造商的促销努力与供应商的生产努力是企业扩大市场规模常用的策略,因此,本文还研究了这两种策略分别对供应链召回努力策略的影响。我们发现这两种策略都能降低双方采取全额召回努力时潜在市场规模的门槛,激励双方增加召回努力,降低产品召回概率并增加供应链成员的利润。特别的,我们还对比了这两种策略对双方召回努力的影响,发现当促销努力成本系数与生产努力成本系数都较小时,两种策略对召回努力的影响相同,当生产努力成本系数足够大时,考虑促销努力时双方的召回努力水平更高,否则,考虑生产努力时双方的召回努力水平更高。     

Manufacturer’s mixed pallet design problem

We study a problem faced by a major beverage producer. The company produces and distributes several brands to various customers from its regional distributors. For some of these brands, most customers do not have enough demand to justify full pallet shipments. Therefore, the company decided to design a number of mixed or “rainbow” pallets so that its customers can order these unpopular brands without deviating too much from what they initially need. We formally state the company’s problem as determining the contents of a pre-determined number of mixed pallets so as to minimize the total inventory holding and backlogging costs of its customers over a finite horizon. We first show that the problem is NP-hard. We then formulate the problem as a mixed integer linear program, and incorporate valid inequalities to strengthen the formulation. Finally, we use company data to conduct a computational study to investigate the efficiency of the formulation and the impact of mixed pallets on customers’ total costs.     

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.     

Optimal proportional reinsurance and investment with transaction costs, I: Maximizing the terminal wealth

We consider a problem of optimal reinsurance and investment with multiple risky assets for an insurance company whose surplus is governed by a linear diffusion. The insurance company’s risk can be reduced through reinsurance, while in addition the company invests its surplus in a financial market with one risk-free asset and n risky assets. In this paper, we consider the transaction costs when investing in the risky assets. Also, we use Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) to control the whole risk. We consider the optimization problem of maximizing the expected exponential utility of terminal wealth and solve it by using the corresponding Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation. Explicit expression for the optimal value function and the corresponding optimal strategies are obtained.     

The influence of non-linear dependencies on the basis risk of industry loss warranties

Index-linked catastrophic loss instruments represent an alternative to traditional reinsurance to hedge against catastrophic losses. The use of these instruments comes with benefits, such as a reduction of moral hazard and higher transparency. However, at the same time, it introduces basis risk as a crucial key risk factor, since the index and the company’s losses are usually not fully dependent. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of basis risk on an insurer’s solvency situation when an industry loss warranty contract is used for hedging. Since previous literature has consistently stressed the importance of a high degree of dependence between the company’s losses and the industry index, we extend previous studies by allowing for non-linear dependencies between relevant processes (high-risk and low-risk assets, insurance company’s loss and industry index). The analysis shows that both the type and degree of dependence play a considerable role with regard to basis risk and solvency capital requirements and that other factors, such as relevant contract parameters of index-linked catastrophic loss instruments, should not be neglected to obtain a comprehensive and holistic view of their effect upon risk reduction.