Information sharing through digitalisation in decentralised supply chains

This study investigates the impact of private information on decision making process and how emerging technologies can facilitate information sharing and reduce misinformation in decentralised settings. Focusing on business environments, we examine if information sharing between distinct partners can be a mutually beneficial option. In principle, information affects the preferences and the actions of decision makers and usually contributes to inefficiencies for the entire system. A supply chain with two rational firms is considered; the firms have conflicting objectives and possess information that cannot be verified. Real-time communication through a cloud platform is allowed, before the firms finalise their strategies. During the communication phase, both firms are free to report whatever information optimises their individual objectives, even fake. Misinformation seems a plausible option, especially in competitive environments, since the firms may take advantages from such behaviour. We demonstrate that sharing the actual information can be beneficial for both, under the implementation of an appropriate mechanism that considers the welfare of the entire chain. Despite the individualistic behaviour of independent decision makers, it is doable to eliminate entirely information asymmetry and misinformation. This happens by including sufficient incentives on a mechanism that induce firms to reveal their information, because it is in their self-interest to do so. The value of information and the expected benefits of the voluntary information sharing are calculated, indicating the potential improvement

Sustainable supply chain management towards disruption and organizational ambidexterity:A data driven analysis

Balancing sustainability and disruption of supply chains requires organizational ambidexterity. Sustainable supply chains prioritize efficiency and economies of scale and may not have sufficient redundancy to withstand disruptive events. There is a developing body of literature that attempts to reconcile these two aspects. This study gives a data-driven literature review of sustainable supply chain management trends toward ambidexterity and disruption. The critical review reveals temporal trends and geographic distribution of literature. A hybrid of data-driven analysis approach based on content and bibliometric analyses, fuzzy Delphi method, entropy weight method, and fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory is used on 273 keywords and 22 indicators obtained based on the experts’ evaluation. The most important indicators are identified as supply chain agility, supply chain coordination, supply chain finance, supply chain flexibility, supply chain resilience, and sustainability. The regions show different tendencies compared with others. Asia and Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa are the regions needs improvement, while Europe and North America show distinct apprehensions on supply chain network design. The main contribution of this review is the identification of the knowledge frontier, which then leads to a discussion of prospects for future studies and practical industry implementation

Weighted Round Robin (WRR) Based Replenishment Model in Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) System

Vendor managed inventory (VMI) is a popular supply chain system where vendor or supplier take responsibility and decision in managing its customers’ inventory. Two important goals of the VMI are improving service level and maintaining inventory still low and available. Many studies in VMI compare their performance with the traditional system. Unfortunately, studies in improving VMI performance are rare. This work aims to improve VMI by implementing Weighted Round Robin (WRR), a popular scheduling model in computer system, in the replenishment model in VMI. WRR is popular because of its load balancing nature. Environment in this work is two-echelon supply chain. The vendor is a multi-product manufacturer. The customers are retailers. This WRR based replenishment model is then compared with two common replenishment models: (s, S) model and (r, Q) model. In this work, we observe two performance parameters: sales and inventory condition. Based on the simulation result, it is shown that the WRR model performs better than the existing (s, S) model and (r, Q) model and it occurs in most of the observed variables. In the certain condition, performance of the WRR model compared with the (s, S) model and the (r, Q) model is as follows. The WRR model performs 31 percent better than the (s, S) model and 12 percent better than the (r, Q) model in success ratio. Manufacturer’s stock in the WRR model is only 36 percent than in the (s, S) model and 40 percent than in the (r, Q) model. Total stock in the supply chain in the WRR model is only 63 percent than in the (s, S) model and 89 percent than in the (r, Q) model

Weighted Round Robin (WRR) Based Replenishment Model in Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) System

Vendor managed inventory (VMI) is a popular supply chain system where vendor or supplier take responsibility and decision in managing its customers’ inventory. Two important goals of the VMI are improving service level and maintaining inventory still low and available. Many studies in VMI compare their performance with the traditional system. Unfortunately, studies in improving VMI performance are rare. This work aims to improve VMI by implementing Weighted Round Robin (WRR), a popular scheduling model in computer system, in the replenishment model in VMI. WRR is popular because of its load balancing nature. Environment in this work is two-echelon supply chain. The vendor is a multi-product manufacturer. The customers are retailers. This WRR based replenishment model is then compared with two common replenishment models: (s, S) model and (r, Q) model. In this work, we observe two performance parameters: sales and inventory condition. Based on the simulation result, it is shown that the WRR model performs better than the existing (s, S) model and (r, Q) model and it occurs in most of the observed variables. In the certain condition, performance of the WRR model compared with the (s, S) model and the (r, Q) model is as follows. The WRR model performs 31 percent better than the (s, S) model and 12 percent better than the (r, Q) model in success ratio. Manufacturer’s stock in the WRR model is only 36 percent than in the (s, S) model and 40 percent than in the (r, Q) model. Total stock in the supply chain in the WRR model is only 63 percent than in the (s, S) model and 89 percent than in the (r, Q) model

Digital supply chain through dynamic inventory and smart contracts

This paper develops a digital supply chain game, modeling marketing and operation interactions between members. The main novelty of the paper concerns a comparison between static and dynamic solutions of the supply chain game achieved when moving from traditional to digital platforms. Therefore, this study proposes centralized and decentralized versions of the game, comparing their solutions under static and dynamic settings. Moreover, it investigates the decentralized supply chain by evaluating two smart contracts: Revenue sharing and wholesale price contracts. In both cases, the firms use an artificial intelligence system to determine the optimal contract parameters. Numerical and qualitative analyses are used for comparing configurations (centralized, decentralized), settings (static, dynamic), and contract schemes (revenue sharing contract, wholesale price contract). The findings identify the conditions under which smart revenue sharing mechanisms are worth applying

Maximising the value of supply chain finance

Supply Chain Finance (SCF) arrangements aim to add value by taking a cooperative approach to financing the supply chain. Interest in SCF has been increasing, and decision makers need a comprehensive view of possible applications and their potential. By means of theoretical and empirical exploration, we develop a conceptual framework that allows for positioning of SCF concepts and practices. The framework is based on a delineation of four archetypal SCF policies and the criteria that are relevant for adoption of each policy. The two main contributions of our framework are: (1) it explicitly considers operational motives as well as the financial motives that could prompt a firm to engage financial cooperation; and (2) it uses a discounted cash flow approach to illustrate the trade-offs that arise from different risks in SCF implementations. We use the framework to review policies that have been used in reverse factoring, an SCF practice that has recently become popular. Our study reveals implications for all the parties involved in an SCF implementation

The Endogenous Market Structures Approach. A Non-technical Survey with Applications to the Crisis and Future Scenarios for the New Economy

The EMSs approach to macroeconomics introduces strategic interactions and endogenous entry decisions in the analysis of aggregate phenomena as business cycle, international trade and growth. This survey provides a non-technical discussion of the applications of the EMSs approach to positive and normative issues, and relates these with recent debates on the current recession, future scenarios for glabalization, policymaking and the New Economy.