Manufacturer cooperation in supplier development under risk

Supplier development involves efforts undertaken by manufacturing firms to improve their suppliers’ capabilities and performance. These improvement efforts can be targeted at a variety of areas such as quality management, product development, and cost reduction. Since supplier development requires investments on the part of the manufacturer, it is important to optimally allocate investment dollars among multiple suppliers to minimize risk while maintaining an acceptable level of return. This paper presents a set of optimization models that address this issue. We consider two scenarios: single-manufacturer and multiple suppliers (SMMS) and two-manufacturer and multiple suppliers (TMMS). In the SMMS case, we suggest optimal investments in various suppliers by effectively considering risk and return. The TMMS case investigates whether manufacturers with differing capabilities could gain risk reduction benefits from cooperating with each other in supplier development. Through illustrative applications, we identify conditions in which both cooperation and non-cooperation are beneficial for manufacturers. Under conditions of cooperation, we propose optimal investments for manufacturers to achieve high levels of risk reduction benefits.     

On contracts for VMI program with continuous review (r, Q) policy

Based on continuous review (r, Q) policy, this paper deals with contracts for vendor managed inventory (VMI) program in a system comprising a single vendor and a single retailer. Two business scenarios that are popular in VMI program are “vendor with ownership” and “retailer with ownership”. Taking the system performance in centralized control as benchmark, we define a contract “perfect” if the contract can enable the system to be coordinated and can guarantee the program to be trusted. A revenue sharing contract is designed for vendor with ownership, and a franchising contract is designed for retailer with ownership. Without consideration of order policy and related costs at the vendor site, it is shown that one contract can perform satisfactorily and the other one is a perfect contract. With consideration of order policy and related costs at the vendor site, it is shown that one contract can perform satisfactorily and the performance of the other one depends on system parameters.     

Incorporating quantity discounts and their inventory impacts into the centralized purchasing decision

Multi-site organizations must balance conflicting forces to determine the appropriate degree of purchasing centralization for their respective supplies. The ability to garner quantity discounts represents one of the primary reasons that organizations centralize procurement. This paper provides methodologies to calculate optimal order quantities and compute total purchasing and inventory costs when products have quantity discount pricing. Procedures for both all-units and incremental quantity discount schedules are provided for four different strategic purchasing configurations (scenarios): complete decentralization, centralized pricing with decentralized purchasing, centralized purchasing with local distribution, and centralized purchasing and warehousing. For ordering decisions under local distribution, procedures to determine optimal order quantities and costs are presented in a precise form that could be easily implemented into spreadsheets by practicing managers. For the more complicated multi-echelon scenarios, we introduce a single-cycle policy with a tailored aggregation refinement step that performs very well under experimentation when compared to a conservative bound.     

A robust optimization approach to wine grape harvesting scheduling

Optimization models are increasingly being used in agricultural planning. However, the inherent uncertainties present in agriculture make it difficult. In recent years, robust optimization has emerged as a methodology that allows dealing with uncertainty in optimization models, even when probabilistic knowledge of the phenomenon is incomplete. In this paper, we consider a wine grape harvesting scheduling optimization problem subject to several uncertainties, such as the actual productivity that can be achieved when harvesting. We study how effective robust optimization is solving this problem in practice. We develop alternative robust models and show results for some test problems obtained from actual wine industry problems.     

The design of robust value-creating supply chain networks: A critical review

This paper discusses Supply Chain Network (SCN) design problem under uncertainty, and presents a critical review of the optimization models proposed in the literature. Some drawbacks and missing aspects in the literature are pointed out, thus motivating the development of a comprehensive SCN design methodology. Through an analysis of supply chains uncertainty sources and risk exposures, the paper reviews key random environmental factors and discusses the nature of major disruptive events threatening SCN. It also discusses relevant strategic SCN design evaluation criteria, and it reviews their use in existing models. We argue for the assessment of SCN robustness as a necessary condition to ensure sustainable value creation. Several definitions of robustness, responsiveness and resilience are reviewed, and the importance of these concepts for SCN design is discussed. This paper contributes to framing the foundations for a robust SCN design methodology.     

Synchronized abandonments in a single server unreliable queue

We consider a single server unreliable queue represented by a 2-dimensional continuous-time Markov chain. At failure times, the present customers leave the system. Moreover, customers become impatient and perform synchronized abandonments, as long as the server is down. We analyze this model and derive the main performance measures using results from the basic q-hypergeometric series.     

Analysis of supply chains with quantity based fixed incentives

This paper examines the use of quantity based fixed incentives to coordinate inventory decisions in a decentralized supply chain. We consider a two stage supply chain of autonomous supplier and distributor and prove that the optimal ordering policy for the newsvendor distributor under fixed incentives is an (s,S)$(s\text{,}S)$ type policy. We further show that external and internal quantity based incentives can restore channel coordination in single period and channel members can benefit through arbitrary splitting of the resulting additional chain profit. The single period results are extended to multiple periods and the impact of fixed incentives on the distributor’s optimal stocking policy and channel efficiency are examined under three different multi-period supplier strategies. Numerical examples are used to compare the multi-period strategies and to provide additional managerial insights. The results show that contrary to common belief, incentive plans developed and maintained based only on current inventory data perform poorly in long term and that such incentive plans must be periodically updated to enhance their efficiency. Furthermore, we show that high level of incentives designed to push too much inventory downstream of the supply chain can actually reduce the chain’s efficiency.     

带负顾客和非空竭服务随机休假的M~([x])/G/1可修排队系统

研究了带负顾客和非空竭服务随机休假的M~([X])/G/1可修排队系统.负顾客不仅仅移除一个正在接受服务的正顾客,而且还使得服务器损坏而立即进行修理.通过构造一个具有吸收态的马尔可夫链求得了系统稳态存在的充分必要条件.利用补充变量法求得了系统的排队指标和可靠性指标.最后我们还给出了一个数值实例.     

制造商与两个具有竞争性的零售商的两阶段博弈模型

针对一个制造商和两个具有竞争性的零售商组成的供应链两阶段博弈模型.首先考虑下游零售商之间的Stackelberg博弈,然后又以整体最优讨论制造商为主导的Stackelberg博弈的两阶段博弈模型.数字实验结果表明:该策略不仅能提高制造商的利润,而且能改善销售商的利润,特别是对于供应链成员之间具有较高的竞争强度.     

财务供应链管理提高企业短期财务绩效的实证研究

近几年来,无论是理论界还是实务界,对供应链管理理念在企业短期财务管理中的应用日益关注.负营运资本管理和类金融模式即是两种典型的形式.对2001-2006年间实施后一年较前一年的79个供应链管理样本进行细分,分为物理供应链样本25个,财务供应链样本54个,运用单样本t检验、单样本位置参数的Wilcoxon符号秩检验和一般线性回归法来深入探究两类供应链管理之间的关系以及二者对企业财务绩效的影响有何差异.实证结果显示:在物理供应链样本中,产成品周转率和存货周转率在10%的水平上有了显著的提高,但并未转化为盈利指标的改善.在财务供应链样本中,营业利润率和净资产收益率在5%的水平上有了显著的提高,即看到了盈利指标的改善.财务供应链管理对业绩的影响更为直接.但回归分析的结果显示:实施类金融模式会阻碍营业利润率的提高.该文的研究结论在更深入的层面上揭示了两类供应链管理之间的关系,有利于提高对供应链管理对企业财务绩效影响机制的认识.