Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the supply chain coordination with contracts. Numerous supply chain models are discussed. In each model, the supply chain optimal actions are identified. The chapter extends the newsvendor model by allowing the retailer to choose the retail price in addition to the stocking quantity. Coordination is more complex in this setting because the incentives provided to align one action might cause distortions with the other action. The newsvendor model is also extended by allowing the retailer to exert costly effort to increase demand. Coordination is challenging because the retailer's effort is noncontractible—that is, the firms cannot write contracts based on the effort chosen. The chapter also discusses an infinite horizon stochastic demand model in which the retailer receives replenishments from a supplier after a constant lead time. Coordination requires that the retailer chooses a large basestock level.

Supply Chain Coordination with Contracts

Perspectives in supply chain risk management

The importance of remanufacturing used products into new ones has been widely recognized in the literature and in practice. In this paper, we address the problem of choosing the appropriate reverse channel structure for the collection of used products from customers. Specifically, we consider a manufacturer who has three options for collecting such products: (1) she can collect them herself directly from the customers, (2) she can provide suitable incentives to an existing retailer (who already has a distribution channel) to induce the collection, or (3) she can subcontract the collection activity to a third party. Based on our observations in the industry, we model the three options described above as decentralized decision-making systems with the manufacturer being the Stackelberg leader. When considering decentralized channels, we find that ceteris paribus, the agent, who is closer to the customer (i.e., the retailer), is the most effective undertaker of product collection activity for the manufacturer. In addition, we show that simple coordination mechanisms can be designed such that the collection effort of the retailer and the supply chain profits are attained at the same level as in a centrally coordinated system.

https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6102&context=lkcsb_research

Closed-Loop Supply Chain Models with Product Remanufacturing

In this Chapter, we imagine a decision maker (or a group of experts) trying to establish or examine fair procedures to combine opinions about alternatives related to different points of view.

Multiple criteria decision making

Using relatively simple and widely used models, we illustrate how carbon emission concerns could be integrated into operational decision-making with regard to procurement, production, and inventory management. We show how, by associating carbon emission parameters with various decision variables, traditional models can be modified to support decision-making that accounts for both cost and carbon footprint. We examine how the values of these parameters as well as the parameters of regulatory emission control policies affect cost and emissions. We use the models to study the extent to which carbon reduction requirements can be addressed by operational adjustments, as an alternative (or a supplement) to costly investments in carbon-reducing technologies. We also use the models to investigate the impact of collaboration among firms within the same supply chain on their costs and carbon emissions and study the incentives firms might have in seeking such cooperation. We provide a series of insights that highlight the impact of operational decisions on carbon emissions and the importance of operational models in evaluating the impact of different regulatory policies and in assessing the benefits of investments in more carbon efficient technologies. Note to Practitioners-Firms worldwide, responding to the threat of government legislation or to concerns raised by their own consumers or shareholders, are undertaking initiatives to reduce their carbon footprint. It is the conventional thinking that such initiatives will require either capital investments or a switch to more expensive sources of energy or input material. In this paper, we show that firms could effectively reduce their carbon emissions without significantly increasing their costs by making only operational adjustments and by collaborating with other members of their supply chain. We describe optimization models that can be used by firms to support operational decision making and supply chain collaboration, while taking into account carbon emissions. We analyze the effect of different emission regulations, including strict emission caps, taxes on emissions, cap-and-offset, and cap-and-trade, on supply chain management decisions. In particular, we show that the presence of emission regulation can significantly increase the value of supply chain collaboration.

https://www.sutd.edu.sg/cmsresource/idc/papers/2013_Carbon_Footprint_and_the_Management_of_Supply_Chains_Insights_From_Simple_Models.pdf

Carbon Footprint and the Management of Supply Chains: Insights From Simple Models

This paper presents a model for analyzing the impact of joint decision policies on channel coordination in a system consisting of a supplier and a group of homogeneous buyers. The joint decision policy characterized by the unit selling price and the order quantity is coordinated through quantity discounts and franchise fees. Both the annual demand rate and the operating cost-including the purchase, ordering, and inventory holding costs-depend on the joint decision policy employed. This paper contributes by integrating work addressing quantity discounts on inventory and ordering policies and work focusing on the control mechanism provided by quantity discounts in channel coordination. It is shown that the optimal all-unit quantity discount policy is equivalent to the optimal incremental quantity discount policy in achieving channel coordination. Furthermore, it is shown that quantity discounts alone are not sufficient to guarantee joint profit maximization. The analyses of the general models are illustrated by specific analytical results obtained for a given demand function.

Channel coordination and quantity discounts

Modeling quantity discounts under general price-sensitive demand functions: Optimal policies and relationships

Coordinating order quantities between the manufacturer and the buyer: A generalized newsvendor model

This paper studies the effect of coordination in a manufacturing and distribution system consisting of one manufacturer and one distributor. The system operates to meet price-sensitive random demand with the objective of maximizing expected profits of both the manufacturer and the distributor. The coordinated pricing and production/ordering policies that maximize the expected profits of the manufacturer and the distributor, as well as the distributor's optimal pricing and ordering policies without coordination, are developed. The focus of this study is to address the following managerial questions: What factors make coordination an effective strategy for both the manufacturer and the distributor? What are the coordination strategies and the coordinated policies that maximize both parties' expected profits and the joint expected profit? These and other related managerial issues are explored in this paper.

Pricing and ordering strategies in manufacturing and distribution alliances

Faster product development and increased competition in retail industries is resulting in shorter and shorter product life-cycles. This phenomenon is making it more difficult for a firm to accurately estimate random demand of such products and to plan their one-time order quantity accordingly. In this paper, we develop a model to assess the multiple effects of coordinated – i.e., joint – stocking and prior-sale discount decisions: (i) on the reduction of demand uncertainty; (ii) on maximization of the expected profit; and (iii) on the probability of achieving or exceeding it. We develop the joint optimal decisions that maximize the expected profit and discuss a procedure for computing the probability that the realized value of the (random) profit will exceed its maximum expected value. We present qualitative results on the varying effects of joint decisions on increasing the expected profit and the probability of achieving or exceeding it. We also describe a detailed numerical study examining the effects of varying parameter values on the percentage increase in expected profit with joint decision making. The paper concludes with extensions of the model that can deal with more general situations.

Z. Kevin Weng

Papers

Channel coordination and quantity discounts

Modeling quantity discounts under general price-sensitive demand functions: Optimal policies and relationships

Coordinating order quantities between the manufacturer and the buyer: A generalized newsvendor model

Pricing and ordering strategies in manufacturing and distribution alliances

Integrating early sales with production decisions: analysis and insights