Leader-follower Game in VMI System with Limited Production Capacity Considering Wholesale and Retail Prices

VMI (Vendor Managed Inventory) is a widely used cooperative inventory policy in supply chains in which each enterprise has its autonomy in pricing. This paper discusses a leader-follower Stackelberg game in a VMI supply chain where the manufacturer, as a leader, produces a single product with a limited production capacity and delivers it at a wholesale price to multiple different retailers, as the followers, who then sell the product in dispersed and independent markets at retail prices. An algorithm is then developed to determine the equilibrium of the Stackelberg game. Finally, a numerical study is conducted to understand the influence of the Stackelberg equilibrium and market related parameters on the profits of the manufacturer and its retailers. Through the numerical example, our research demonstrates that: (a) the market related parameters have significant influence on the manufacturer’ and its retailers’ profits; (b) a retailer’s profit may not be necessarily lowered when it is charged with a higher inventory cost by the manufacturer; (c) the equilibrium of the Stackelberg equilibrium benefits the manufacturer.Stackelberg Game;Supply Chain;Vendor Managed Inventory

Supply chain network capacity competition with outsourcing: a variational equilibrium framework

This paper develops a supply chain network game theory framework with multiple manufacturers/producers, with multiple manufacturing plants, who own distribution centers and distribute their products, which are distinguished by brands, to demand markets, while maximizing profits and competing noncooperatively. The manufacturers also may avail themselves of external distribution centers for storing their products and freight service provision. The manufacturers have capacities associated with their supply chain network links and the external distribution centers also have capacitated storage and distribution capacities for their links, which are shared among the manufacturers and competed for. We utilize a special case of the Generalized Nash Equilibrium problem, known as a variational equilibrium, in order to formulate and solve the problem. A case study on apple farmers in Massachusetts is provided with various scenarios, including a supply chain disruption, to illustrate the modeling and methodological framework as well as the potential benefits of outsourcing in this sector

Integrating Closed-loop Supply Chains and Spare Parts Management at IBM

Ever more companies are recognizing the benefits of closed-loop supplychains that integrate product returns into business operations. IBMhas been among the pioneers seeking to unlock the value dormant inthese resources. We report on a project exploiting product returns asa source of spare parts. Key decisions include the choice of recoveryopportunities to use, the channel design, and the coordination ofalternative supply sources. We developed an analytic inventory controlmodel and a simulation model to address these issues. Our results showthat procurement cost savings largely outweigh reverse logistics costsand that information management is key to an efficient solution. Ourrecommendations provide a basis for significantly expanding the usageof the novel parts supply source, which allows for cutting procurementcosts.supply chain management;reverse logistics;product recovery;inventory management;service management

Working Arrangements of Fruit and Vegetable Processing Cooperatives

Organization and operations of nine working arrangements developed by fruit and vegetable processing cooperatives are described and evaluated. Three distinct approaches are identified - contractual agreement, affiliation through membership status, and formation of separate business entity. The specific structure and functions of joint undertakings reflect the needs and preferences of the participants. Benefits perceived in the cases cited included scale economies in processing and marketing, capital cost avoidance, product diversification, assured commodity supply, and enhanced market entry.Fruit and vegetable cooperatives, joint ventures, contractual agreements, marketing services, processing services, Agribusiness,

E-Fulfillment and Multi-Channel Distribution – A Review

This review addresses the specific supply chain management issues of Internet fulfillment in a multi-channel environment. It provides a systematic overview of managerial planning tasks and reviews corresponding quantitative models. In this way, we aim to enhance the understanding of multi-channel e-fulfillment and to identify gaps between relevant managerial issues and academic literature, thereby indicating directions for future research. One of the recurrent patterns in today’s e-commerce operations is the combination of ‘bricks-and-clicks’, the integration of e-fulfillment into a portfolio of multiple alternative distribution channels. From a supply chain management perspective, multi-channel distribution provides opportunities for serving different customer segments, creating synergies, and exploiting economies of scale. However, in order to successfully exploit these opportunities companies need to master novel challenges. In particular, the design of a multi-channel distribution system requires a constant trade-off between process integration and separation across multiple channels. In addition, sales and operations decisions are ever more tightly intertwined as delivery and after-sales services are becoming key components of the product offering.Distribution;E-fulfillment;Literature Review;Online Retailing

Smart Microgrids: Overview and Outlook

The idea of changing our energy system from a hierarchical design into a set of nearly independent microgrids becomes feasible with the availability of small renewable energy generators. The smart microgrid concept comes with several challenges in research and engineering targeting load balancing, pricing, consumer integration and home automation. In this paper we first provide an overview on these challenges and present approaches that target the problems identified. While there exist promising algorithms for the particular field, we see a missing integration which specifically targets smart microgrids. Therefore, we propose an architecture that integrates the presented approaches and defines interfaces between the identified components such as generators, storage, smart and \dq{dumb} devices.Comment: presented at the GI Informatik 2012, Braunschweig Germany, Smart Grid Worksho

Privacy Management Service Contracts as a New Business Opportunity for Operators

Recognizing the importance of privacy management as a business process and a business support process, this paper proposes the use of service level agreements (SLA’s) around privacy features, including qualitative and quantitative ones. Privacy metrics are defined by both parties with boundary values on each qualitative or qualitative feature. Their distribution is relying on stress distributions used in this field. The use of service level agreements also casts privacy management into a business perspective with benefits and costs to either party in a process. This approach is especially relevant for communications operators as brokers between content owners (individuals, businesses) and enterprise applications; in this context, the privacy SLA management would be carried out by the operator, while the terms and conditions of the SLA negotiation reside with the two external parties. This work was carried out as part of the large EU project PRIME www.prime.project.eu.org. on privacy enhancing technologies.Content Owners;Enterprise Business Processes;Managed Service Contracts;Privacy Agreements;Service Level Agreements (SLA's);Telecommunications Operators

Fairtrade and market failures in agricultural commodity markets

This paper concerns an NGO intervention in agricultural commodity markets known as Fairtrade. Fairtrade pays producers a minimum unit price and provides capacity building support to member cooperative organizations. Fairtrade's organizational capacity support targets those factors believed to reduce the commodity producer's share of returns. Specifically, Fairtrade justifies its intervention in markets like coffee by claiming that market power and a lack of capacity in producer organizations'marks down'the prices producers receive. As the market share of Fairtrade coffee grows in importance, its intervention in commodity markets is of increasing interest. Using an original data set collected from fieldwork in Costa Rica, this paper assesses the role of Fairtrade in overcoming the market factors it claims limits producer returns. Features of the Costa Rican input market for coffee permit a generalization of the results. The empirical results find that market power is a limiting factor in the Costa Rican market and that Fairtrade does improve the efficiency of cooperatives, thereby increasing the returns to producers. These results do not depend on the minimum price policy of Fairtrade and therefore can inform on its organizational support activities. Finally, the results also suggest that producers selling to vertically integrated, multinational coffee mills face lower producer price'mark-downs'compared with domestically owned non-cooperative mills. This result contradicts the popular view that the increasing concentration of vertically integrated multinational firms accounts for a decline in producers'share of coffee returns.Markets and Market Access,Crops&Crop Management Systems,Access to Markets,Commodities,Economic Theory&Research

Structure and Power in Multilateral Negotiations: An Application to French Water Policy

Stakeholder negotiation is an increasingly important policymaking tool. However, relatively little is understood about the relationship between the structure of the negotiating process and the effectiveness with which stakeholders can pursue their individual interests. We apply the Rausser- Simon multilateral bargaining model to a specific negotiation process involving water storage capacity and use in the upper Adour Basin in southwestern France. We focus on a coalition of three stakeholder groups with aligned but distinct interests. In addition to the standard indices of bargaining powerԴhe distribution of political weights (ܡccessݩ and players٠utilities if an agreement is not reached, our analysis identifies other less obvious sources of power. First, a coalition member may benefit when his access is reduced if the redistribution increases the access of another coalition member who has a more favorable ܳtrategic location.ݠSecond, the interests of the coalition as a whole will usually, but not always, be advanced if its members cede access to a pokesmanݠrepresenting their common interests. However, some members may be adversely affected. Third, restricting the extent to which coalition members can make proposals that further their own individual interests at the expense of other coalition members will usually, but not always, harm the coalition as a whole.water, bargaining, negotiations, Environmental Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,