Quantity discounts based on the previous order in a two-period inventory model with demand uncertainty

We examine quantity discount contracts between a manufacturer and a retailer in a stochastic, two-period inventory model. The retailer places an order in each of the two periods to meet stochastic demands. The manufacturer gives the retailer a price discount on purchases in the second period in excess of the first-period order quantity (incremental QDP) or a price discount for all units ordered in the second period if the retailer orders more in the second period than in the first period (all-units QDP). We show that the retailer's optimal ordering decision in the second period depends on the sum of initial inventory and previous order quantity. Our computational study suggests that the QDP contract induces the retailer to buy more in the second period but less in the first period, while the increase of the total order quantity may not be significant; and that it increases the manufacturer's profit only when the wholesale margin is large relative to the retail margin.     

Demand disruption and coordination of the supply chain with a dominant retailer

This paper develops two coordination models of a supply chain consisting of one manufacturer, one dominant retailer and multiple fringe retailers to investigate how to coordinate the supply chain after demand disruption. We consider two coordination schedules, linear quantity discount schedule and Groves wholesale price schedule. We find that, under the linear quantity discount schedule, the manufacturer only needs to adjust the maximum variable wholesale price after demand disruption. For each case of the disrupted amount of demand, the higher the market share of the dominant retailer, the lower its average wholesale price and the subsidy will be under the linear quantity discount schedule, while the higher its fraction of the supply chain’s profit will be under Groves wholesale price schedule. When the increased amount of demand is very large and production cost is sufficiently low, linear quantity discount schedule is better for the manufacturer. However, when the production cost is sufficiently large, Groves wholesale price schedule is always better. We also find that the disrupted amount of demand largely affects the allocation of the supply chain’s profit.     

Wholesale price rebate vs. capacity expansion: The optimal strategy for seasonal products in a supply chain

We consider a supply chain in which one manufacturer sells a seasonal product to the end market through a retailer. Faced with uncertain market demand and limited capacity, the manufacturer can maximize its profits by adopting one of two strategies, namely, wholesale price rebate or capacity expansion. In the former, the manufacturer provides the retailer with a discount for accepting early delivery in an earlier period. In the latter, the production capacity of the manufacturer in the second period can be raised so that production is delayed until in the period close to the selling season to avoid holding costs. Our research shows that the best strategy for the manufacturer is determined by three driving forces: the unit cost of holding inventory for the manufacturer, the unit cost of holding inventory for the retailer, and the unit cost of capacity expansion. When the single period capacity is low, adopting the capacity expansion strategy dominates as both parties can improve their profits compared to the wholesale price rebate strategy. When the single period capacity is high, on the other hand, the equilibrium outcome is the wholesale price rebate strategy.     

The role of retailer’s performance in optimal wholesale price discount policies

The main goal of this paper is to model the effects of wholesale price control on manufacturer’s profit, taking explicitly into account the retailer’s sales motivation and performance. We consider a stylized distribution channel where a manufacturer sells a single kind of good to a single retailer. Wholesale price discounts are assumed to increase the retailer’s motivation thus improving sales. We study the manufacturer’s profit maximization problem as an optimal control model where the manufacturer’s control is the discount on wholesale price and retailer’s motivation is one of the state variables. In particular in the paper we prove that an increasing discount policy is optimal for the manufacturer when the retailer is not efficient while efficient retailers may require to decrease the trade discounts at the end of the selling period. Computational experiments point out how the discount on wholesale price passed by the retailer to the market (pass-through) influences the optimal profit of the manufacturer.     

Integrated inventory model of returns-quantity discounts contract

In the traditional inventory problem, to secure demand risk a retailer often requests the right to return unsold goods, although this is associated with higher wholesale prices. Various studies have attempted to illustrate the returns scenario. However, these studies have focused on optimization from the retailer's perspective only, and have thus ignored the fact that the manufacturer might have no incentive to accept returns. This study takes account of the self-interest of both the retailer and the manufacturer, and demonstrates that a quantity discount scheme should provide the manufacturer with incentive to accept returns. A three-stage theoretical model is developed and presented to illustrate the returns-quantity discounts contract, and demonstrates that the contract is self-enforcing. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that Pareto efficiency can be attained in the model. The scenarios are illustrated through a numerical example.     

Inventory,channel coordination and bargaining in a manufacturer-retailer system

Substantial research literature has been developed over the years on the subject of inventory. The more recent literature has examined the fundamental relationships between inventory control and price theory. A significant portion of this literature assumes the ultimate consumer demand as a constant and characterizes the relationship between a manufacturer and a retailer as a leader-follower problem. A primary assumption in these studies is that the manufacturer, as the leader, exerts almost complete control over the behavior of the retailer. However, in practice, the retailer does exert some control over the manufacturer. This paper develops a framework that integrates inventory control with constant demand and the economic relationship between consumer demand and retail price. Within this framework, the impact of order quantity, wholesale price and retail price on the behavior of both the manufacturer and the retailer is investigated. Furthermore, this paper explores the issues and conclusions that results from coordinating the relationship between the manufacturer and the retailer. Our analyses demonstrate that channel coordination can be achieved by utilizing well-known bargaining models. A numerical example is provided to illustrate our theoretical findings.     

Study on the coordination contract in supply chain under trade credit based on risk compensation

Trade credit changes the inventory risk between supplier and retailer. This leads to failure in the coordination of the supply chain. Considering that the supplier bears the retailer’s inventory risk under the credit condition, in this paper, the contract is constructed by combining the risk compensation and quantity discount contract to re-coordinate the supply chain and analyze the contract. The results show that the contract can achieve voluntary supply chain coordination; and when the seller’s funds is within a certain range, the coordinate contract can perform in the form of the wholesale price contract, and the wholesale price is influenced by its own funds and product value. In the end, a numerical example is given to verify this conclusion.     

Selling to the “Newsvendor” with a forecast update: Analysis of a dual purchase contract

We consider a supply chain in which a manufacturer sells to a procure-to-stock retailer facing a newsvendor problem with a forecast update. Under a wholesale price contract, the retailer waits as long as she can and optimally places her order after observing the forecast update. We show that the retailer’s wait-and-decide strategy, induced by the wholesale price contract, hinders the manufacturer’s ability to (1) set the wholesale price and maximize his profit, (2) hedge against excess inventory risk, and (3) reduce his profit uncertainty. To mitigate the adverse effect of wholesale price contract, we propose the dual purchase contract, through which the manufacturer provides a discount for orders placed before the forecast update. We characterize how and when a dual purchase contract creates strict Pareto improvement over a wholesale price contract. To do so, we establish the retailer’s optimal ordering policy and the manufacturer’s optimal pricing and production policies. We show how the dual purchase contract reduces profit variability and how it can be used as a risk hedging tool for a risk averse manufacturer. Through a numerical study, we provide additional managerial insights and show, for example, that market uncertainty is a key factor that defines when the dual purchase contract provides strict Pareto improvement over the wholesale price contract.     

具有公平偏好成员的两阶段供应链分析

本论文分析具有公平偏好零售商与制造商组成的供应链,在制造商作为Stackelberg博弈的领导者提供批发价格合同给零售商时,零售商如何确定最优的订货量而制造商如何确定最优的批发价格.当需求满足均匀分布时,研究发现存在均衡的最优订货量以及最优批发价格.本论文也分析了需求分布参数对均衡最优解的影响.最后,通过数值计算对供应链的绩效如何随公平偏好参数变化的问题进行了研究.并且说明公平偏好是零售商获取其对供应链利润分配的一种手段.     

考虑RFID应用的资金约束供应链订购决策研究

RFID技术的应用在有效降低商品库存损耗率的同时,也增加了供应链企业的运营成本,尤其是具有资金压力的供应链中小企业。在零售商具有资金约束的二级供应链下分析RFID技术的应用对资金约束供应链绩效的影响,通过构建贸易信贷下基于批发价合同的Stackelberg博弈模型,对比采用RFID前后资金约束供应链成员的均衡决策及期望收益,探讨了该供应链采用RFID的必要条件。结果显示当RFID标签成本低于某个阈值,或RFID库存损耗恢复率高于某个阈值时,供应链成员会选择采用RFID。此外,当RFID单位标签成本或零售商标签成本分摊系数较低,或RFID库存损耗恢复率较高时,制造商会提供比不采用RFID时更高的批发价;在采用RFID的条件下,零售商订购数量低于不采用RFID时的数量。通过设计收益分享契约实现了采用RFID时资金约束供应链的协调。     

Supply chain performance and consumer surplus under alternative structures of channel dominance

Supply chain partnerships exhibit varying degrees of power distribution among the agents. This has implications for pricing and operational decisions in the channel and eventually influences the end customers. To understand how different power schemes affect the supply chain partners’ performance and consumer surplus, we study channel structures with a dominant manufacturer, a dominant retailer, and no single-agent dominance. Under random and price sensitive demand, channel dominance is interpreted in our setting as exerting power to determine the retail and wholesale prices as well as to transfer the inventory risk to the weaker party. We analyze all problems in a game-theory based framework and characterize the equilibrium retail price, wholesale price, and order/production quantity. We show that the manufacturer-dominated channel structure leads to the highest production quantity, the lowest retail price, and the largest expected surplus for an individual buyer; on the other hand, the entire channel profit and the total consumer surplus are highest when the retailer holds the channel dominance. While both the manufacturer and the retailer are better off when they become a power agent individually, channel dominance does not always guarantee higher share of channel profits, as we show under the manufacturer-dominated structure. Further insights are derived analytically and numerically from comparisons of the manufacturer/retailer dominance schemes with the no single-agent dominance structure and integrated channel. We also study extensions to investigate the effect of demand model and risk sharing, and we address industry settings with alternative schemes of holding cost, shortage penalty and salvage value.     

Risk sharing and information revelation mechanism of a one-manufacturer and one-retailer supply chain facing an integrated competitor

This paper develops an information revelation mechanism model of a one-manufacturer and one-retailer supply chain facing an outside integrated-competitor under demand uncertainty. We investigate how the manufacturer designs a wholesale price-order quantity contract to induce the retailer to report his risk sensitivity information truthfully. We try to explore the effects of the outside competitor and the risk-sharing rule on the optimal price-service level decisions of the retailer and the optimal wholesale prices of the manufacturer. We find that the strategic interaction plays an important role in the effect of risk sensitivity on the order quantity for the retailer. When the fraction of the risk cost shared by the manufacturer is sufficiently large (small), the optimal wholesale price for the high risk-averse retailer is higher (lower) than that for the low risk-averse retailer.     

随机需求下供应商管理库存的供应链模型

以一个供应商和一个零售商的两阶段供应链为背景,利用报童模型给出了供应商管理库存(VMI)的供应链模型,在需求服从均匀分布的条件下得出解析解,并与传统的零售商管理库存(RMI)系统作了比较,分析了这两种情况下批发价和订货量的变化.数值结果表明VMI导致了批发价的缩减,但提高了订货量,VMI减轻了双重边际效应,系统利润多于传统的RMI系统.     

A comparison of different quantity discount pricing policies in a two-echelon channel with stochastic and asymmetric demand information

In this paper, we study quantity discount pricing policies in a channel of one manufacturer and one retailer. The paper assumes that the channel faces a stochastic price-sensitive demand but the retailer can privately observe the realization of an uncertain demand parameter. The problem is analyzed as a Stackelberg game in which the manufacturer declares quantity discount pricing schemes to the retailer and then the retailer follows by selecting the retail price and associated quantity. Proposed in the paper are four quantity-discount pricing policies: “regular quantity discount”; “fixed percentage discount”; “incremental volume discount” and “fixed marginal-profit-rate discount”. Optimal solutions are derived, and numerical examples are presented to illustrate the efficiency of each discount policy.     

Pricing and two-tier advertising with one manufacturer and one retailer

This paper considers the pricing decisions and two-tier advertising levels between one manufacturer and one retailer where customer demand depends on the retail price and advertisement by a manufacturer and a retailer. We solve a Stackelberg game with the manufacturer as the leader and the retailer as the follower. With price sensitive customer demand and a linear wholesale contract, we obtain the optimal decisions by the manufacturer and the optimal responses by the retailer. Our results show that cost sharing of local advertising does not work well, it is better for the manufacturer to advertise nationally and offer the retailer a lower wholesale price.     

存在强势零售商时双渠道制造商在线推介策略研究

研究了存在强势零售商时双渠道制造商的推介策略问题。首先,以零售商弱势模型为基准,研究发现:较大的推介市场规模有助于制造商采取都推介策略,且零售商和制造商具有高度一致的推介策略偏好。其次,构建零售商强势决策模型,发现相对零售商弱势而言,制造商推介策略存在显著变化:当推介市场规模较小时,若批发价格较高,则制造商采取都推介策略;当推介市场规模较大时,若批发价格较低,则制造商仅推介官方商城。当且仅当推介市场规模和批发价格同时较小或较大时,零售商与制造商才能达成推介策略共识。此外,无论零售商弱势或强势,都推介策略下消费者剩余和社会福利优于仅推介官方商城策略。     

An integrated inventory model for a deteriorating item with allowable shortages and credit linked wholesale price

This study proposes a single manufacturer, single retailer integrated inventory model that includes deterioration and shortages in the retailer’s inventory. The manufacturer’s production process is assumed to be imperfect as it produces a certain percentage of defective items. The retailer performs a 100  % screening process immediately on receiving a lot from the manufacturer and returns the detected defective items to the manufacturer in the next delivery. The manufacturer disposes the defective items and incurs a disposal cost. To increase sales, (s)he offers a trade credit to the retailer. The retailer’s wholesale price varies linearly with the credit period. The objective is to determine the optimal replenishment cycle time, the time of running out of stock, the length of the credit period and the number of lots from the manufacturer to the retailer so as to maximize the total profit of the integrated system. A solution algorithm is designed and illustrated through numerical examples. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis is carried out to study the influence of the model-parameters on the optimal solution.     

Consumer returns reduction and information revelation mechanism for a supply chain

In this paper, we develop two revelation mechanism models of a supply chain consisting of one manufacturer and one retailer under asymmetric information, where the retailer provides store assistance (SA) to reduce consumer returns rate and increase demand. Under full information, we find that a higher returns rate or returns handling cost increases the SA level if the market scale is sufficiently high. In the demand information asymmetry model, we find that: (i) the low-type retailer (facing a low demand) has no incentive to distort demand information while the high-type retailer may report wrong information; (ii) the manufacturer would like to design a menu of wholesale price-order quantity contract to induce truthful demand information and the manufacturer pays an information rent to the high-type retailer if the returns rate or returns handling cost for the retailer is sufficiently low; (iii) asymmetry of information does not change the monotonicity of the unit wholesale price in the retailer’s type, and information asymmetry decreases the retail price but increases the SA level. Unlike the demand information asymmetry model, a higher retailer’s returns handling cost expands the effects of information asymmetry on the retail price and the SA level, and using revelation mechanism decreases the channel profit if the retailer’s returns handling cost is sufficiently high under the returns rate information asymmetry model.     

Pricing and advertisement in a manufacturer–retailer supply chain

We use a game theoretical approach to study pricing and advertisement decisions in a manufacturer–retailer supply chain when price discounts are offered by both the manufacturer and retailer. When the manufacturer is the leader of the game, we obtained Stackelberg equilibrium with manufacturer’s local allowance, national brand name investment, manufacturer’s preferred price discount, retailer’s price discount, and local advertising expense. For the special case of two-stage equilibrium when the manufacturer’s price discount is exogenous, we found that the retailer is willing to increase local advertising expense if the manufacturer increases local advertising allowance and provides deeper price discount, or if the manufacturer decreases its brand name investment. When both the manufacturer and retailer have power, Nash equilibrium in a competition game is obtained. The comparison between the Nash equilibrium and Stackelberg equilibrium shows that the manufacturer always prefers Stackelberg equilibrium, but there is no definitive conclusion for the retailer. The bargaining power can be used to determine the profit sharing between the manufacturer and the retailer. Once the profit sharing is determined, we suggest a simple contract to help the manufacturer and retailer obtain their desired profit sharing.     

Coordinating a decentralized supply chain with customer returns and price-dependent stochastic demand using a buyback policy

We investigate a decentralized supply chain that consists of a manufacturer and a retailer where the retailer simultaneously determines the retail price and order quantity while experiencing customer returns and price dependent stochastic demand. We propose an agreement between the manufacturer and the retailer that includes two buyback prices, one for unsold inventory and a second for customer returns, and show that this type of easy-to-implement agreement can achieve perfect supply chain coordination and be a win-win for both manufacturer and retailer when a complementary profit-sharing agreement is included.