Inventory and transshipment decisions in the rationing game under capacity uncertainty

In this paper, we consider the inventory decisions of two retailers who are supplied by a single supplier with uncertain capacity. When capacity is allocated in proportion to the retailers׳ orders, the retailers compete for the capacity by inflating their orders (i.e., the rationing game). In addition, we allow the retailers to implement transshipment between them such that they cooperate by transshipping the surplus stock of one to another who is out of stock. Our analysis of Nash equilibrium orders shows that, while order inflation in the equilibrium orders persists in the rationing game with transshipment, it may not occur if the amount of capacity shortage is small and the transshipment prices are low. Thus, carefully chosen transshipment prices may alleviate order inflation behavior. We also characterize centralized orders that maximize the total profit of the retailers and compare them to equilibrium orders. In particular, we investigate coordinating transshipment prices that induce the retailers to choose centralized orders. Our numerical analysis shows that, even for two identical retailers, coordinating transshipment prices exist in a more limited range of parameter values in the rationing game than they do outside the rationing game due to capacity uncertainty and limitation.     

Inventory Sharing in the Presence of Commodity Markets

This study investigates the value of inventory sharing in the presence of spot and forward markets. We consider a multi‐period setting where two firms process a common commodity to meet stochastic demands. They can buy and sell the commodity through both the spot and forward markets. They can also share the commodity if one has leftover inventory while the other has excess demand. We first characterize the equilibrium strategies of the two firms. Our analysis reveals that in such a context, the value of inventory sharing is low when the forward price is directly used to value the sharing transactions. We then develop a structured trans‐shipment price scheme that uses a linear combination of the spot and forward prices. We show that this method can substantially increase the value of inventory sharing. Our analysis also reveals that in the presence of liquid spot and forward markets, the value of inventory sharing mainly results from the difference of the transaction costs, and it increases if the market in which firms operate becomes more competitive.     

Uncertainty,flexibility and buffers in the management of the firm operating system

The role that buffers can assume in the management of uncertain situations that can occur in industrial firms is demonstrated. An outline is provided of the various types of buffers with regard to different types of uncertainty faced and to the characteristics of the production system. Although the prevalent scholarly trend is to evaluate buffers as factors which uselessly increase the complexity of the firms operating systems, this work tries to analyse the contributions they offer to the management process. Buffers are considered as alternative and complementary factors to technological flexibility. Technological flexibility is often considered the only competitive means able to face both external and internal uncertainties. The choice to use or not use buffers as a complementary resource or as an alternative to technological flexibility, depends on a comparison of the cost-benefits of the two solutions     

Two-period pricing and ordering policy for the dominant retailer in a two-echelon supply chain with demand uncertainty

Retailing channels are increasingly being dominated by ‘power’ retailers who are in a position to dictate prices and ordering schedules to manufacturers and suppliers. A dominant retailer, such as Wal-Mart, has the ‘power’ to decide retail prices of products because there are so many manufacturers who are keen to sell their products through or to such a large and powerful retailer. Several products, such as electronic products, can be sold in the market for some periods during their lifecycles before they retreat, except when they are not popular with consumers after been introduced. Therefore, in case of such products, the retailer should not just consider a single-period pricing and ordering policy. It should make dynamic pricing and ordering decisions based on market demand forecast, in order to obtain maximum cumulative profit from the product during its lifecycle. In this study, we consider this scenario and construct a two-period model to discuss pricing and ordering problems for a dominant retailer with demand uncertainty in a declining price environment. We show that the maximum expected profit function is continuous concave, so the optimal solution to pricing and ordering policy exists and it is the one and only. We also analyze sensitivity of retailer's expected profit to the effects of parameters of price-discount sharing scheme and market demand.     

企业柔性的本质及其构建策略

企业柔性是企业持续成功的重要因素之一. 在综述企业柔性研究成果的基础上,基于组 织能力的学习性理论赋予企业柔性以新内涵. 运用系统学原理,剖析了企业柔性构成的维度、 要素及其作用机理,构建了企业柔性创新性的研究框架,并结合实例提出了企业柔性构建的基 本策略.     

Makespan and workstation utilization minimization in a flowshop with operations flexibility

Production environments where there are more tasks than workstations and any task can be assigned to any workstation are examples of operations flexibility. This paper investigates the benefits of operations flexibility in a flowshop when the goals are to minimize the makespan and workstation utilization. Furthermore, machine dominance principles are extended to the case of a flowshop with operations flexibility. The proposed heuristic framework comprises of two phases, allocation of operations to workstations and generation of job sequencing. In addition, an improvement procedure based on simulated annealing is implemented for this problem. The experimental results identify the effects of the experimental factors; show the significance of the heuristic factor; and demonstrate the tradeoff between the two performance criteria.     

网络组织的效率 ———泊松流市场的模型分析

对不确定情况下的服务业网络组织进行研究.售后服务行业在我国东部大城市已经悄然出现了一种网络式组织形式,然而其业务量是不确定的,就其面对的市场特点建立了泊松流模型,用模型对网络组织进行分析,得出网络组织的效率改进主要体现在资产和管理的规模经济及不确定条件下人员的互补效应.     

产品召回供应链中线性保险合约与订货决策

考虑一个由单供应商和单制造商组成的二级供应链,在不确定市场需求情形下考虑产品召回,站在制造商角度研究供应链线性保险合约下的最优订货决策以及最优线性保险合约决策。研究表明,最优的订货决策与产品召回概率以及线性保险系数相关,存在唯一的最优订货量来最大化制造商的利润。对于密度函数倒数的导数较大的一般需求分布函数,最优的线性保险系数与线性保险合约的固定费用以及产品召回概率有关。当产品召回概率和线性保险合约的固定费用均较小时或者产品召回概率较大但线性保险合约的固定费用适中时,制造商通过选择线性保险合约可以改善自己的利润。     

The impact of component commonality in an assemble-to-order environment under supply and demand uncertainty

A material requirements planning simulator with a two-level bill-of-material is used to study the impact of introducing component commonality into an assemble-to-order environment when demand is subject to random variations, and component procurement orders experience random delays. By using simulated data, our ANOVA results show that component commonality significantly interacts with existence of demand and supply chain uncertainties, and benefits of component commonality are most pronounced when both uncertainties exist.     

Role of flexibility in supply chain design and modeling—Introduction to the special issue

In this introductory note, we describe the motivation behind this special issue on supply chain design and modeling. We begin by noting the potential opportunities offered by flexibility of a system in enhancing its functionalities and capabilities. After defining the nature of flexibility, we briefly describe flexibility in a supply chain, pertinent issues, and potential tools and techniques utilized for designing and modeling flexibility in it. We close out with a brief review of the articles in this issue and their relevance to the interests of decision makers.     

Hedging strategic flexibility in the distribution optimization problem

Motivated by the increasing prevalence of flexibility hedging in corporate-level risk management programs, this paper focuses on the treatment of hedging operational risks in the coordinated replenishment and shipment for distribution systems. The forward option pricing model with the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model for stochastic demand forecasting is adopted for constructing inventory volume flexibility. We therefore propose a hedge-based coordinated inventory replenishment and shipment (HCIRS) methodology for flexibly making inventory hedging and optimal routing assignment decisions as well as coordinating replenishment and shipment policies. The HCIRS methodology provides insight into strategic flexibility adopted for a real-life inventory–distribution problem faced by one of the major East Asia food supply networks and turns out to be very efficient. The proposed HCIRS methodology has provided evidence of better results than the traditional operational techniques for the presented case in this paper.     

考虑采购资金约束的供应链期权柔性契约

在销售商存在采购预算资金约束下,对供应链期权柔性契约进行了研究.首先,利用非线性规划中的Kuhn-Tucker条件分析了采购资金对销售商的订货决策的影响,并得出了不同资金稀缺程度下的订货策略;其次,讨论了供应商的产量决策问题,并得出了供应商的最优产量安排;再次,研究了供应链的合作问题,并给出了实现供应链合作的具体条件;最后,通过数值分析对研究结论进行了验证和说明.     

Capturing the benefits of industry 4.0: a business network perspective

Abstract

This study uses a business network perspective to investigate the industry 4.0 context with the internet of things (IoT) as its enabling technology and product-use data as its core network resource. A three-stage qualitative methodology (interviews, focus group, Delphi-based inquiry) was used to examine the case of an emergent IoT-based business network in the UK road transport industry to examine: (i) how aspects of product use data influence the benefit opportunities the data provide to the different network actors; (ii) how capturing of the benefit opportunities in a network context is impacted by key barriers; and (iii) how network capabilities can overcome these barriers to capture benefits from product-use data. The study, thereby, contributes to an understanding of the industry 4.0 context from a resource dependency theory perspective and provides concrete recommendations for management operating in this context.     

A study of flexibility and renewal in Danish companies

A research project has been initiated in Denmark by the Ministry of Business and Industry and the Danish Business Development Council which aims at giving a coherent picture of the situation for innovation by focusing on different levels of aggregation in the Danish system of innovation. An account of the main idea behind the project, its theoretical foundation and some results from the first part of the project are given in this article. The first part of the project is an investigation into the position and condition of flexibility and renewal in Danish companies. It is divided into two studies. The first study investigates the situation for flexibility and renewal in Danish companies and is based on a questionnaire. The second study follows up the results from the first study through a qualitative investigation in which the objective is to display some of the commonly seen and important factors that facilitate or inhibit the introduction of more flexible organizational forms in Danish companies.     

The effects of the warranty cost on the imperfect EMQ model with general discrete shift distribution

In this paper, we investigate the effect of the warranty cost on optimization of the economic manufacturing quality (EMQ). This is done for a deteriorating process where the production process shifts from the in-control state to the out-of-control state following a general discrete probability distribution. Once the production process goes out of control, the production process produces some defective items. The defective item cost includes reworking and warranty costs. Thus, in order to economically operate a production-inventory system with products sold under warranty, the tradeoffs among the production setup, inventory, and defective item cost, including the reworked cost before sale and the warranty cost after sale, needed to be analysed. This objective in this paper is to determine the production lot size while minimizing the total cost per unit of time per unit of time. Various special cases are presented. Two of them are extensions of results obtained previously in the literature. Finally, a numerical example is given which uses a discrete Weibull probability distribution. Sensitivity analysis of the model with respect to cost and time parameters is also performed.     

On the Joint Lot-Sizing Problem with Zero Setup Costs

In a recent paper, Pinto and Mabert [5] presented a lot-sizing rule and an improvement procedure for the joint lot-sizing problem with zero setup costs. We show that this procedure often yields infeasible schedules. We also present and discuss two interesting properties of the joint lot-sizing problem with zero setup costs. A numerical example to illustrate the second property is provided.     

Manufacturing network configuration in supply chains with product recovery

Efficient implementation of product recovery requires appropriate network structures. In this paper, we study the network design problem of a firm that manufactures new products and remanufactures returned products in its facilities. We examine the capacity decisions and expected performance of two alternative manufacturing network configurations when demand and return flows are both uncertain.     

The effect of supplier development on outsourcing performance: the mediating roles of opportunism and flexibility

Abstract

In this increasingly competitive business environment, firms utilise outsourcing as a strategic tool to leverage globally dispersed resources so that they may focus on their core competencies and improve efficiency. The more firms rely on outsourcing, the more they depend on their suppliers, and the more important it is to manage and develop suppliers in order to achieve and maximise the benefits of outsourcing. This paper explores the impact of supplier development on outsourcing performance. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse data collected from 213 manufacturing firms in China. The results indicate that supplier development has a strong direct positive impact on outsourcing performance, and that supplier development also leads to enhanced outsourcing performance through reducing outsourcing opportunism risk and improving outsourcing flexibility. In addition to making a contribution to current theories of outsourcing, our findings also provide outsourcing managers with practical understanding and insights about the role of supplier development in enhancing outsourcing performance.     

企业知识管理系统柔性与环境不确定性的匹配度计算模型

旨在为进行企业知识管理系统(EKMS)柔性的评价与决策提供量化工具。分析了EKMS柔性的组成、环境不确定性的主客观因素及EKMS柔性与环境不确定性匹配的涵义,提出了EKMS柔性与环境不确定性的评价指标体系及测度方法,在此基础上借鉴空间几何概念设计了EKMS柔性与环境匹配度的计算方法及判断准则,最后给出了算例。     

Inventory routing problems in a context of vendor-managed inventory system with consignment stock and transshipment

The inventory routing problem involves the integration and the coordination of two components of the logistics value chain: the inventory management and the vehicle routing decisions. In fact, the aim is to jointly decide on the distribution tour, from a distribution centre to a set of locations, and on the inventory policy for each location. Although many research investigations show great interest in policies such as transshipment or dynamic routings on the distribution system performances, these approaches are often criticised in practice as being too restrictive. In this article, we consider the inventory routing framework in a supplier integration context, i.e. a vendor-managed inventory with a consignment stock policy. Under such framework, we show that the transshipment brings more benefits than the classical context. In particular, we consider the case of static routings and we numerically show that transshipment permits to better optimise the distribution tours and to improve the global performance of the supply network.