考虑供应商服务与零售商退货的定价博弈分析

研究由一个供应商和一个零售商组成的二级供应链,由供应商提供产品服务,零售商制定产品零售价,在一个销售周期结束后存在零售商向供应商的退货,退货产生的物流成本由零售商与供应商通过博弈的方式共同分担.基于博弈理论,建立了供应商和零售商以各自利润最大化为目标,以服务水平、零售价和退货为主要影响因素的Nash和Stackelberg博弈.采用数值方法,对这两个博弈进行了求解.得到供应商为零售商分担退货物流成本最优比例、供应商最优服务水平和零售商最优定价策略.研究表明,Nash博弈时的解是唯一的,此时供应商不会分担退货物流成本;Stackelberg博弈时,供应商分担退货物流成本比例依据批发价大小而定.     

软件服务供应链合同设计与协调策略

考虑了整合式软件服务供应链和分散式软件服务供应链两种模式,以整合供应链为基准对分散供应链下的软件开发合同设计与协调问题进行了研究。在分散供应链下,分析了固定价格合同、销量激励合同和成本分担合同三种合同对供应链收益的影响,探索了这些合同的激励机制,考察了这些合同的适用环境。研究表明:三种合同中,成本分担合同对软件开发商的激励最高,达到了整合供应链下的协调水平;固定价格合同适用于软件用户对质量不太注重而对价格比较敏感、以及开发成本较高的情形,销量激励合同适用于软件用户对质量比较注重而对价格不太敏感、以及开发成本较低的情形,成本分担合同适用于平台运营商易于监测软件开发商开发成本的情形。     

考虑决策者失望规避的供应链协同绿色创新动态优化与协调研究

针对决策者存在失望规避行为且产品绿色水平具有动态变化特征的情形,基于失望理论,运用微分博弈的方法研究了供应链协同绿色创新动态优化与协调问题,探讨了供应链成员失望规避程度对绿色创新决策及供应链绩效的影响,并提出双向成本分担契约对供应链进行协调。结果表明,供应链成员是否选择协同绿色创新及产品的绿色水平均与成员的失望规避程度密切相关;分散式决策下,若制造商选择分担供应商部分绿色创新成本,其分担比例与制造商失望规避程度负相关,与供应商失望规避程度正相关;集中式决策下,产品绿色水平、成员绿色创新水平及效用现值均高于协调前分散系统中的对应值;在一定条件下,双向成本分担契约的设计与实施,能有效提升供应链成员效用现值,实现供应链协调。     

考虑云安全风险的个人云存储服务最优定价策略

针对现有个人云存储服务纷纷关闭的现象,如何根据不同市场时期和云用户特征,制定合理的定价策略已成为个人云存储服务商面临的挑战性问题。本文在考虑云安全风险,云用户感知价值及弹性成本对个人云存储服务定价的影响,建立了基于云安全风险的两阶段定价模型,给出了免费试用时长确定下的最优决策及免费试用时长不确定下的最优免费试用时长及最优价格。借助数值分析,进一步研究了云安全风险系数,云用户感知价值,云安全运营成本系数对最优免费时长,最优利润的影响,结果表明,当云安全风险系数适中时,个人云存储供应商(PCSP)采取两阶段定价策略。另外,最优利润随着云安全风险系数,免费试用时长,单位安全运营成本的增加先增加后减少。     

线上结合线下的供应链动态服务与定价决策研究

本文研究由一个传统电商企业和线下实体零售商组成的线上结合线下的供应链系统。由于线下服务努力能同时增加线上和线下的销售量,于是传统电商纷纷开设线下实体店,或者与已有的实体店进行合作。这两种模式分别对应集中决策和分散决策模式,因此本文构建了线上结合线下的供应链动态模型并研究这两种决策模式下的最优服务和定价决策。结果表明:(1)当线下渠道偏好增加时,无论是集中决策下还是分散决策模式下,企业都应该提高线下价格而降低线上价格以获得最优利润,而在分散决策模式下,传统电商还应该提高其批发价格;(2)成本分担策略能够提高线下实体店对服务的投入,从而提高服务和商誉水平;(3)成本分担策略能使线下零售店和传统电商的利润水平都得到了提高,实现了帕累托改进;(4)当满足一定条件时,成本分担-收益分担机制能够实现供应链的协调。     

零售商占优下的两部定价合同与通道费

本文考虑由单个占优的零售商和单个供应商组成的二级供应链模型.在价格相依的随机需求下,研究分散系统下的批发价格合同与两部定价合同.在一定的条件下得到两种合同中供应链成员的最优决策和利润以及供应链系统的利润.分析表明,当零售商占优时两部定价合同比批发价格合同更有效.这在一定程度上说明当前零售业中收取通道费的合理性.     

云服务供应链技术创新与动态定价的微分博弈分析

考虑了时间因素对产品技术先进度的影响,引入微分博弈的方法在动态框架下研究云服务产品动态定价及技术创新问题。分别探讨了两种合作研发模式(创新成本分担契约和收益共享契约)下的微分博弈模型及均衡结果。结果表明,技术先进度敏感系数的增加会提高技术创新投入、云产品价格以及云服务供应链各成员利润;对于整个云服务供应链来说,选择低创新成本分担比例或高收益共享比例更加有利;当云服务供应链内部成员意见不一致时,可使用一次性转让合同来协调两方的行为。最后通过数值算例展示了模型的有效性。     

政府补贴下供应链合作减排的微分博弈

借助微分博弈理论,研究政府补贴下由一个供应商和一个制造商组成的供应链长期合作减排的动态协调问题。在产品需求受减排量的影响下,构建了集中式和分散式微分博弈模型,并设计了成本分担契约协调供应链。结合算例对参数进行灵敏度分析,研究发现:政府补贴对企业减排起到有效的激励作用并且有助于供应链实现协调;成本分担契约的引入可提高供应商和制造商的减排努力水平、产品减排量及需求量,并实现了供应链协调;随着供应商、制造商减排成本系数以及减排量自衰减率的增大,引入契约后产品减排量呈下降趋势;相反,随着产品减排量对减排努力水平的敏感性以及消费者低碳意识的增强,产品减排量呈上升趋势。     

价格和服务双因素影响的供应链协调决策模型研究

以单个制造商和存在竞争的两个零售商组成的供应链结构模型为研究对象,建立价格和服务两个重要因素影响的市场需求函数,研究供应链协调决策模型。以销售价格、服务质量和制造商批发价格作为三个决策变量,分析集中决策和分散决策两种情景的最优策略,研究收益共享、服务成本分担、收益共享成本分担等三种不同契约的供应链协调问题,并使用数值仿真方法,分析了相关参数变化对系统协调的影响。仿真结果表明:收益共享契约和成本分担契约需满足一定条件才能达到供应链协调,但其效果不一定实现帕累托最优;收益共享和成本分担契约可实现供应链协调,但收入共享系数需在合理区间取值;改进的收益共享成本分担契约能够避免共享系数的盲区,更加有效地达到供应链协调,保持供应链良好运行。     

考虑用户沟通成本的物流服务团购策略

根据客户参加团购的成本不同将客户分类(个体型和团体型),从而得到物流服务商不同的定价策略及最优解,并进一步将结果进行比较得出最优决策.研究结果表明:只有当个体型客户规模较大时,团购定价才是可行的.同时两类客户的沟通成本差异较为明显时,商家使用团购定价使得收益明显增加,团购组合定价才是最优策略.农村物流的市场特征恰好符合这团体型客户少,客户之间的沟通成本差异较大的特征.最后采用数值算例展示了农村物流服务商家采用团购定价能给企业带来更大的收益,进一步验证了上述结论.从而为物流服务商提供一种定价方法,也为农村物流服务的发展创造条件.     

Optimal pricing strategies for Internet-based software dissemination

In the recent past, there have been several initiatives by major software companies, such as Microsoft, to lead the industry towards electronic software distribution. In this paper, we use a monopoly pricing model to examine the optimal pricing strategies for ‘selling’ and ‘pay-per-use’ licensing of packaged software over the Internet. Traditionally, software distribution included outright sale as well as short/long term renting. With the Internet fast becoming a prevalent mode for disseminating software, a customer can download and use software on a need-by-need basis. For the software vendor, offering the pay-per-use option to the consumer provides for a steady source of revenue and obviates the need for physical distribution, purchasing and inventory management mishaps. We examine the following issues in this paper: (i) what are the extra benefits to the software vendor for providing the pay-per-use option?; and (ii) does the market size change? The contribution of this paper is to show that pay-per-use is a viable alternative for a large number of customers, and that judicious pricing for pay-per-use is profitable for the software vendor.     

Optimal service contract under cost information symmetry/asymmetry

Service outsourcing has become a hot topic in both industry and academy. This paper studies the contract design problems for a service seller who consigns the service to a vendor. The vendor’s service cost parameter may or may not completely be known by the seller, which constitutes the cases of information symmetry or asymmetry. In both cases, the optimal contracts are developed to maximize the seller’s expected profit, with the consideration of contractible and non-contractible service qualities. The properties of the contract parameters are explored, along with the analysis of information rent and value of cost information. Moreover, we find that non-contractible service quality is not an issue for the service seller under cost information symmetry since a revenue-sharing type of contract can guarantee the seller’s profit. However, this result does not hold under cost information asymmetry and thus non-contractibility of the service quality indeed costs the seller.     

A new MIP model for mine equipment scheduling by minimizing maintenance cost

Mining investment has been recognized as capital intensive due mainly to the cost of large equipment. Equipment capital costs for a given operation are usually within the order of hundreds of million dollars but may reach to billion dollars for large companies operating multiple mines. Such large investments require the optimum usage of equipment in a manner that the operating costs are minimized and the utilization of equipment is maximized through optimal scheduling. This optimum usage is required to ensure that the business remains sustainable and financially stable. Most mining operations utilize trucks to haul the mined material. Maintenance is one of the major operating cost items for these fleets as it can reach approximately one hundred million dollars yearly. There is no method or application in the literature that optimizes the utilization for truck fleet over the life of mine. A new approach based on mixed integer programming (MIP) techniques is used for annually scheduling a fixed fleet of mining trucks in a given operation, over a multi-year time horizon to minimize maintenance cost. The model uses the truck age (total hours of usage), maintenance cost and required operating hours to achieve annual production targets to produce an optimum truck schedule. While this paper focuses on scheduling trucks for mining operation, concept can be used in most businesses using equipment with significant maintenance costs. A case study for a large scale gold mine showed an annual discounted (10% rate) maintenance cost saving of over $2M and more than 16% ($21M) of overall maintenance cost reduction over 10 years of mine life, compared with the spreadsheet based approach used currently at the operation.     

An integrated inventory model under conditions of order processing cost reduction and permissible delay in payments

This article develops an integrated inventory model to determine the optimal policy under conditions of order processing cost reduction and permissible delay in payments. Both the vendor and the buyer participate in order processing cost reduction by applying information technologies. The order processing cost can be reduced by certain expenditures and will affect lot-size decisions. Simultaneously, the existence of the credit period serves to reduce the cost of holding stock to the buyer, because it reduces the amount of capital invested in stock for the duration of the credit period. The article derives the total cost function and shows that the function possesses some kinds of convexities. A solution procedure is provided to determine the optimal order policy. Finally, numerical examples are presented to illustrate the solution procedure.     

An integrated vendor–buyer inventory model with order-processing cost reduction and permissible delay in payments

Trade credit plays an important role in financing for many businesses and industries. For the buyers, purchased inventory can be considered to be financed in whole or in part with permissible delay in payments during the purchasing process. On the other hand, both the vendor and buyer take part in order-processing cost reduction by applying information technologies, such as EDI (electronic data interchange). The order-processing cost can also be reduced by adding certain capital investments, and this will affect the lot size decisions. This article develops an integrated inventory model to determine the optimal inventory policy under conditions of order-processing cost reduction and permissible delay in payments, and shows that the total annual variable cost function possesses some kinds of convexities. A solution procedure is provided to determine the optimal order policy. Finally, a numerical example is presented to illustrate the solution procedure.     

A single-vendor and multiple-buyers production–inventory policy for a deteriorating item

This study develops a single-vendor, multi-buyers production–inventory policy for a deteriorating item with a constant production and demand rate. A mathematical model incorporating the costs of both the vendor and the buyers is developed. It can be shown that the integrated policy results in an impressive cost reduction when it is compared with the independent decisions made by the vendor and the buyers.     

A new preventive maintenance strategy for items sold under warranty

When products are sold under warranty, the manufacturer incursadditional costs for warranty servicing. Preventive maintenanceactions can be used to reduce this cost and these are worthwhileonly if the extra cost incurred is less than the reduction achieved.In this paper we propose a new preventive maintenance policywhere the parameters are selected optimally to minimize thetotal warranty servicing cost.     

考虑零售商促销策略的供应链融资及运营策略研究

当零售商的促销策略影响商品市场需求时,本文将促销分摊决策嵌入到经典报童模型,在银行信用与商业信用两种不同的融资模式下,对供应商及供应链整体的利润进行分析。研究发现:当零售商的行为对市场需求有影响时,商业信用在一定程度上减少了供应链的融资成本,增加了供应链的利润;核心企业的融资策略与自身成本及促销分摊策略有关;商业信用对供应链资本配置及零售商的激励,受供应商生产成本及激励策略的影响;商业信用在一定程度上减少了双重边际化效应。