The Impact of Different Power Structures on The Cross-Boder e-Retail Supply Chain With An O2O Dual- Channel

In this paper, considering a cross-border e-retail supply chain composed by a foreign supplier and a cross-border e-retailer, we study the impact of different power structures on the supply chain members’ pricing and profits by establishing foreign supplier Stackelberg (FSS), cross-border e-retailer Stackelberg (CES) and vertical Nash (VN) game model on the basis of discussing O2O dual-channel retail mode and pricing decision. The results show that: i) the cross-border e-retailer prefer to choose the centralized pricing mode and will gain more profit than that in the decentralized pricing mode under the condition of O2O dual-channel retailing. ii) The impact of Stackelberg game on dual channel pricing of the cross-border e-retailer is identical, but the impact of three games on foreign supplier’s pricing is significant, (i.e., the wholesale price of the foreign supplier becomes smaller with the game dominance decreased gradually). iii) The impact of three games on cross-border electronic supply chain members’ profits is significant (i.e., members’ profits become smaller with the game dominance decreased gradually. In addition, the impact of Stackelberg game on supply chain total profits is identical. However, the supply chain total profits under Vertical Nash game are more than Stackelberg game

Analysis of the revenue-sharing contract under different power structures with application in the biodiesel niche market

Master'sMASTER OF ENGINEERIN

Integration and coordination in after-sales service logistics

Maintenance and after-sales service logistics are important disciplines that have received considerable attention both in practice and in the scientific literature. This attention is related to the often high investments and revenues associated with capital-intensive assets in technically advanced business environments. Different maintenance services such as inspections and preventive maintenance activities are executed with the goal to maximize the availability of these expensive assets. However, unavoidable failures may still happen, which means that, in addition to preventive maintenance and services, repair actions (corrective maintenance) are necessary. Spare parts, service engineers and tools are typically the main resources for executing the repair actions and their availability has a major impact on overall system downtime. In this dissertation, we analyze a multi-resource after-sales service supply chain consisting of a service provider and an emergency supplier. The service provider is contractually responsible for the timely repair of some randomly failing capital intensive assets. To execute a repair, the service provider needs both service engineers and spare parts to replace the malfunctioning parts. In case of spare parts stock out, the service provider can either wait for the regular replenishment of parts or decide to hand over the entire repair call to an emergency supplier. For the latter case, a contract between the service provider and the emergency supplier is necessary to specify the compensation. In the first part of this dissertation, we focus on the optimal integrated planning of spare parts and engineers, considering an asset availability constraint. We evaluate the system performance using Markov chain analysis and queueing models, and employ different optimization algorithms to jointly determine the optimal capacity of the resources. This integrated planning results in considerable cost savings compared to the separate planning of spare parts and engineers. In the second part, we investigate the best contract the supplier can offer to the service provider. Furthermore, we propose different coordinated contracts to achieve optimal revenues for both partners in this after-sales service supply chain, under both full and asymmetric information scenarios. Cooperative games, the dominance of one party over the other (Stackelberg game), and information sharing aspects are the tools included in the second part of this dissertation

Exploring horizontal and vertical interactions within an online advertising supply chain

This dissertation consists of highly related three essays on estimating and exploiting the effect of complementarities or synergies between advertising channels within an online advertising ecosystem. The first essay studies how the recognition of complementarities between different channels in the supply chain and sharing information among players can lead to dramatic increases in profitability and scale of operations. Using a naturally occurring experiment, the second essay investigates the impact of decision making structure (centralized vs. decentralized decision-making) on the decision maker's ability to exploit the synergy effects between advertising channels. Lastly, the third essay explores through simulation the challenges involved in estimating complementarities from a structural econometric model based on the researcher's knowledge of whether the decision makers actually incorporate such effects in their decisions.Information, Risk, and Operations Management (IROM

Pricing decisions in a two-echelon decentralized supply chain using bi-level programming approach

Abstract Pricing is one of the major aspects of decision making in supply chain. In the previous works mostly a centralized environment is considered indicating the retailers cannot independently apply their decisions on the pricing strategy. Although in a two-echelon decentralized environment it may be possible that supply chain contributors have encountered with different market power situations which provide that some of them try to impose their interests in pricing and/or volume of the products. In such situations the leader-follower Stackelberg game or more specifically bi-level programming seems to be the best approach to overcome the problem. Furthermore, in this study we consider the impacts of disruption risk caused by foreign exchange uncertainty on pricing decisions in a multi-product two-echelon supply chain. Also it is assumed that the market is partitioned to domestic and international retailers with segmented market for each retailer. The purpose of this paper is to introduce decisions policy on the pricing such that the utility of both manufacturer and retailers is met. Since the proposed bi-level model is NP-hard, a simulated annealing method combining with Tabu search is proposed to solve the model. A numerical example is presented to investigate the effect of foreign exchange variation on the decision variables through different scenarios. The results from numerical example indicate that the international retailers are indifferent to the manufacture undergoes changes where the domestic retailers react to changes, dramatically

Impact of RFID information-sharing coordination over a supply chain with reverse logistics

Companies have adopted environmental practices such as reverse logistics over the past few decades. However, studies show that aligning partners inside the green supply chain can be a substantial problem. This lack of coordination can increase overall supply chain cost. Information technology such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has the potential to enable decentralized supply chain coordinate their information. Even though there are research that address RFID on traditional supply chain, few researches address how to coordinate RFID information sharing in a green supply chain. We study, through simulation experiments, two types of RFID information-sharing coordination under different configurations related with their inventory policies: basic and advanced. Statistical analyses show that better results can be presented in advanced RFID configuration given new coordination and inventory policy decisions presented. In addition, these findings shows what are the RFID information-sharing coordination that can provide better system improvement depending on the supply chain scenarios and factors

A contribution to support decision making in energy/water sypply chain optimisation

The seeking of process sustainability forces enterprises to change their operations. Additionally, the industrial globalization implies a very dynamic market that, among other issues, promotes the enterprises competition. Therefore, the efficient control and use of their Key Performance Indicators, including profitability, cost reduction, demand satisfaction and environmental impact associated to the development of new products, is a significant challenge. All the above indicators can be efficiently controlled through the Supply Chain Management. Thus, companies work towards the optimization of their individual operations under competitive environments taking advantage of the flexibility provided by the virtually inexistent world market restrictions. This is achieved by the coordination of the resource flows, across all the entities and echelons belonging to the system network. Nevertheless, such coordination is significantly complicated if considering the presence of uncertainty and even more if seeking for a win-win outcome. The purpose of this thesis is extending the current decision making strategies to expedite these tasks in industrial processes. Such a contribution is based on the development of efficient mathematical models that allows coordinating large amount of information synchronizing the production and distribution tasks in terms of economic, environmental and social criteria. This thesis starts presents an overview of the requirements of sustainable production processes, describing and analyzing the current methods and tools used and identifying the most relevant open issues. All the above is always within the framework of Process System Engineering literature. The second part of this thesis is focused in stressing the current Multi-Objective solution strategies. During this part, first explores how the profitability of the Supply Chain can be enhanced by considering simultaneously multiple objectives under demand uncertainties. Particularly, solution frameworks have been proposed in which different multi-criteria decision making strategies have been combined with stochastic approaches. Furthermore, additional performance indicators (including financial and operational ones) have been included in the same solution framework to evaluate its capabilities. This framework was also applied to decentralized supply chains problems in order to explore its capabilities to produce solution that improves the performances of each one of the SC entities simultaneously. Consequently, a new generalized mathematical formulation which integrates many performance indicators in the production process within a supply chain is efficiently solved. Afterwards, the third part of the thesis extends the proposed solution framework to address the uncertainty management. Particularly, the consideration of different types and sources of uncertainty (e.g. external and internal ones) where considered, through the implementation of preventive approaches. This part also explores the use of solution strategies that efficiently selects the number of scenarios that represent the uncertainty conditions. Finally, the importance and effect of each uncertainty source over the process performance is detailed analyzed through the use of surrogate models that promote the sensitivity analysis of those uncertainties. The third part of this thesis is focused on the integration of the above multi-objective and uncertainty approaches for the optimization of a sustainable Supply Chain. Besides the integration of different solution approaches, this part also considers the integration of hierarchical decision levels, by the exploitation of mathematical models that assess the consequences of considering simultaneously design and planning decisions under centralized and decentralized Supply Chains. Finally, the last part of this thesis provides the final conclusions and further work to be developed.La globalización industrial genera un ambiente dinámico en los mercados que, entre otras cosas, promueve la competencia entre corporaciones. Por lo tanto, el uso eficiente de las los indicadores de rendimiento, incluyendo rentabilidad, satisfacción de la demanda y en general el impacto ambiental, representa un area de oportunidad importante. El control de estos indicadores tiene un efecto positivo si se combinan con la gestión de cadena de suministro. Por lo tanto, las compañías buscan definir sus operaciones para permanecer activas dentro de un ambiente competitivo, tomando en cuenta las restricciones en el mercado mundial. Lo anterior puede ser logrado mediante la coordinación de los flujos de recursos a través de todas las entidades y escalones pertenecientes a la red del sistema. Sin embargo, dicha coordinación se complica significativamente si se quiere considerar la presencia de incertidumbre, y aún más, si se busca exclusivamente un ganar-ganar. El propósito de esta tesis es extender el alcance de las estrategias de toma de decisiones con el fin de facilitar estas tareas dentro de procesos industriales. Estas contribuciones se basan en el desarrollo de modelos matemáticos eficientes que permitan coordinar grandes cantidades de información sincronizando las tareas de producción y distribución en términos económicos, ambientales y sociales. Esta tesis inicia presentando una visión global de los requerimientos de un proceso de producción sostenible, describiendo y analizando los métodos y herramientas actuales así como identificando las áreas de oportunidad más relevantes dentro del marco de ingeniería de procesos La segunda parte se enfoca en enfatizar las capacidades de las estrategias de solución multi-objetivo, durante la cual, se explora el mejoramiento de la rentabilidad de la cadena de suministro considerando múltiples objetivos bajo incertidumbres en la demanda. Particularmente, diferentes marcos de solución han sido propuestos en los que varias estrategias de toma de decisión multi-criterio han sido combinadas con aproximaciones estocásticas. Por otra parte, indicadores de rendimiento (incluyendo financiero y operacional) han sido incluidos en el mismo marco de solución para evaluar sus capacidades. Este marco fue aplicado también a problemas de cadenas de suministro descentralizados con el fin de explorar sus capacidades de producir soluciones que mejoran simultáneamente el rendimiento para cada uno de las entidades dentro de la cadena de suministro. Consecuentemente, una nueva formulación que integra varios indicadores de rendimiento en los procesos de producción fue propuesta y validada. La tercera parte de la tesis extiende el marco de solución propuesto para abordar el manejo de incertidumbres. Particularmente, la consideración de diferentes tipos y fuentes de incertidumbre (p.ej. externos e internos) fueron considerados, mediante la implementación de aproximaciones preventivas. Esta parte también explora el uso de estrategias de solución que elige eficientemente el número de escenarios necesario que representan las condiciones inciertas. Finalmente, la importancia y efecto de cada una de las fuentes de incertidumbre sobre el rendimiento del proceso es analizado en detalle mediante el uso de meta modelos que promueven el análisis de sensibilidad de dichas incertidumbres. La tercera parte de esta tesis se enfoca en la integración de las metodologías de multi-objetivo e incertidumbre anteriormente expuestas para la optimización de cadenas de suministro sostenibles. Además de la integración de diferentes métodos. Esta parte también considera la integración de diferentes niveles jerárquicos de decisión, mediante el aprovechamiento de modelos matemáticos que evalúan lasconsecuencias de considerar simultáneamente las decisiones de diseño y planeación de una cadena de suministro centralizada y descentralizada. La parte final de la tesis detalla las conclusiones y el trabajo a futuro necesario sobre esta línea de investigaciónPostprint (published version

Analysis of the Project Supply Chains: Coordination and Fair Allocation

This research investigates how project contracts can coordinate the supply chain between a project manager and contractor and if the solutions can be ensured as equitable. The main features of this type of supply chain are the trade-offs between the selection of a higher rate of resource consumption with a consequent higher cost to the contractor and a lower rate of resource consumption leading to later delivery and a reduction of the project-reward to the project manager. This broader problem could lead to a coordination problem for the overall supply chain. This research proposed a solution to this broader problem in two different scenarios: Take it or leave it scenario and negotiation scenario. Finally, the fair allocation of the risks and benefits and the related decision-making issues are addressed as one of the behavioural barriers to the supply chain coordination. The coordination issues in a take it or leave it scenario are addressed using time-based and fixed price project contracts using Stackelberg games. Models of coordination were proposed with time-based contracts, but the fixed price contracts failed to coordinate. The coordination problems in negotiation scenario are addressed with the Nash's bargaining, the Kalai Smorodinsky bargaining, and the utilitarian approach. A cost plus contract has been found to dominate the solutions over any cost sharing contract and fixed price contract for Nash's bargaining and Kalai Smorodinsky bargaining cases. Finally, the issues of fairness of allocation of risks and benefits as one of the challenges of supply chain coordination, have been investigated. The fixed price contracts were found to coordinate the supply chain under consideration alongside the time-based contracts if the members had fairness concern. Some of the key features of this research include the incorporation of various probability distributions for the project completion time and cost, the inclusion of various forms of risk preference, and addressing the challenges of fair allocation in project supply chains