Multi-product budget-constrained acquistion and pricing with uncertain demand and supplier quantity discounts

We consider the joint acquisition and pricing problem where the retailer sells multiple products with uncertain demands and the suppliers provide all unit quantity discounts.The problem is to determine the optimal acquisition quantities and selling prices so as to maximize the retailer’s expected profit, subject to a budget constraint. This is the first extension to consider supplier discounts in the constrained multi-product newsvendor pricing problem. We establish a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model to formulate the problem, and developaLagrangian based solution approach.Computational results for the test problems involving up to thousand products are reported, which show that the Lagrangian based approach can obtain high-quality solutions in a very short time

Virtual transshipments and revenue-sharing contracts in supply chain management

This dissertation presents the use of virtual transshipments and revenue-sharing contracts for inventory control in a small scale supply chain. The main objective is to maximize the total profit in a centralized supply chain or maximize the supply chain\u27s profit while keeping the individual components\u27 incentives in a decentralized supply chain. First, a centralized supply chain with two capacitated manufacturing plants situated in two distinct geographical regions is considered. Normally, demand in each region is mostly satisfied by the local plant. However, if the local plant is understocked while the remote one is overstocked, some of the newly generated demand can be assigned to be served by the more remote plant. The sources of the above virtual lateral transshipments, unlike the ones involved in real lateral transshipments, do not need to have nonnegative inventory levels throughout the transshipment process. Besides the theoretical analysis for this centralized supply chain, a computational study is conducted in detail to illustrate the ability of virtual lateral transshipments to reduce the total cost. The impacts of the parameters (unit holding cost, production cost, goodwill cost, etc.) on the cost savings that can be achieved by using the transshipment option are also assessed. Then, a supply chain with one supplier and one retailer is considered where a revenue-sharing contract is adopted. In this revenue-sharing contract, the retailer may obtain the product from the supplier at a less-than-production-cost price, but in exchange, the retailer must share the revenue with the supplier at a pre-set revenuesharing rate. The objective is to maximize the overall supply chain\u27s total profit while upholding the individual components\u27 incentives. A two-stage Stackelberg game is used for the analysis. In this game, one player is the leader and the other one is the follower. The analysis reveals that the party who keeps more than half of the revenue should also be the leader of the Stackelberg game. Furthermore, the adoption of a revenue-sharing contract in a supply chain with two suppliers and one retailer under a limited amount of available funds is analyzed. Using the revenue-sharing contract, the retailer pays a transfer cost rate of the production cost per unit when he obtains the items from the suppliers, and shares the revenue with the suppliers at a pre-set revenue-sharing rate. The two suppliers have different transfer cost rates and revenue-sharing rates. The retailer will earn more profit per unit with a higher transfer cost rate. How the retailer orders items from the two suppliers to maximize his expected profit under limited available funds is analyzed next. Conditions are shown under which the optimal way the retailer orders items from the two suppliers exists

Logistics Management - Challanges, Opportunities & Solutions

Gerade in wirtschaftlich schwierigen Zeiten gilt es, die Zukunftsfähigkeit von Unternehmen und ganzen Wertschöpfungsketten zu erhalten, indem die Herausforderungen in der Logistik und dem Supply Chain Management aufgegriffen, Chancen herausgearbeitet und konkrete Lösungen ermittelt werden. Dieser Tagungsband ist Teil einer dreibändigen Reihe, welche die Ergebnisse der Konferenz "Logistikmanagement 2011" der Wissenschaftlichen Kommission Logistik im Verband der Hochschullehrer für Betriebswirtschaft e.V. (VHB) dokumentiert, die an der Otto-Friedrich-Universität in Bamberg stattfand. Die ausgewählten Beiträge präsentieren den gegenwärtigen Forschungsstand der betriebswirtschaftlichen Logistik und des Supply Chain Managements. Es werden aktuelle und innovative Konzepte, Theorien und Lösungsansätze in Logistik und Supply Chain Management eindrucksvoll dargestellt. Das Buch wendet sich an Dozenten und Studenten der Betriebswirtschaftslehre mit den Schwerpunkten Supply Chain Management, Logistik und Operations Management sowie an Praktiker, die in diesen Bereichen tätig sind