考虑消费者策略行为的供应链两周期定价与契约设计

针对由一个制造商与一个零售商构成的供应链,考虑消费者的策略性跨期购买行为,构建了两周期动态博弈模型,分析了消费者策略性程度对两周期均衡结果、消费者剩余和社会福利的影响,比较了分散式与集中式决策的均衡偏差,设计了与消费者策略性程度相关的两周期收益共享契约与"两周期收益共享+转移支付"组合式契约。研究表明:分散式决策下,消费者策略性程度有利于增加消费者剩余和社会福利,但会对供应链成员不利;某些情形下,消费者策略性程度会使分散式与集中式决策的系统利润差值增大;当消费者策略性程度相对较低时,两周期收益共享契约不仅可实现供应链完美协调,还可增加消费者剩余和社会福利;当消费者策略性程度较高时,通过组合式契约可实现供应链完美协调,但此时消费者策略性程度的增强可能对消费者剩余和社会福利产生负面影响。     

线上零售商开设体验店：基于供应链的视角

随着消费者消费观念的转变以及《消费者权益保护法》的普及,越来越多的电商企业开设体验店来改善消费者购物体验。本文针对由制造商(或供应商)和开设了体验店的线上零售商(或电商平台)组成的“线下体验,线上购买”O2O系统,考虑可能存在的消费者退货行为以及O2O系统成员企业之间的不对称信息,构建消费者预期效用函数,建立供应链两阶段动态博弈模型。通过模型求解,分析线上零售商开设体验店的可行条件及其对各个企业定价策略和消费者行为的影响,从制造商、O2O系统以及消费者剩余角度考察体验店的价值。研究发现：从线上零售商的角度,开设体验店存在可行条件,但在此可行条件内,体验店的开设总是能够有效提升制造商和供应链系统的期望利润;线上零售商开设体验店能够扩大市场占有率,并降低产品退货率和提升消费者剩余。最后,对原始模型进行了不同维度的扩展,分析产品体验影响消费者满意度和体验店设库存销售产品等情形下的体验店价值。     

“线上销售/回收+线下服务”的闭环供应链定价与服务决策

对于“线上销售/回收+线下服务”的闭环供应链模式,研究了制造商在正向和逆向渠道中都与服务商进行收益共享情况下的最优销售/回收定价决策和最优服务水平决策,并比较了制造商领导的Stackelberg博弈、服务商领导的Stackelberg博弈、制造商与服务商Nash均衡博弈三种情形下的最优决策和最优利润。结果表明：最优的新产品销售价格和正向渠道服务水平均与正向渠道收益分成比例呈正相关;最优的废旧产品回收价格与逆向渠道收益分成比例呈负相关,而最优的逆向渠道服务水平与之呈正相关。制造商和服务商的最优利润不仅受正逆向渠道收益分成比例的影响,而且与新产品生产成本的大小有关：当新产品生产成本较小时,处于领导地位的一方获得的最优利润最大,而当新产品生产成本增大到一定程度后,对方处于领导地位时自身获得的最优利润反而最大,而双方均势时各自获得的最优利润均不占优。     

基于广告-研发的供应链合作博弈分析

对生产商投资研发、销售商投资广告的优势互补的异质型供应链合作问题,构建了博弈模型.分析论证了生产商在斯坦克尔伯格均衡时的收益大于纳什均衡的收益,而且当其边际收益足够大时才会承担一定比例的销售商广告费用.而在纳什均衡中生产商不会承担广告费用.销售商在斯坦克尔伯格均衡时的收益与纳什均衡的收益的大小由具体参数值确定.生产商的研发投入在纳什均衡和斯坦克尔伯格均衡时均与其边际收益正相关,而销售商的广告投入与其边际收益在纳什均衡中正相关,但在斯坦克尔伯格均衡时负相关.进一步论证了博弈的合作均衡相对于非合作博弈均衡具有帕累托优势,并利用罗宾斯坦讨价还价模型对增加的利润进行了分配,得出一种帕累托最优合作方案.最后将合作拓展到多销售商情形.     

VMI供应链下考虑补货策略的的契约设计

结合(r,Q)和(s,S)两种库存补货策略,提出了货权属供应商的VMI供应链的契约设计问题。采用风险分担的思想,给出了两种可行的风险分担的契约形式。在离散需求下,通过参数试验的形式,分别研究了两种契约形式对供应链效率的影响。研究结果表明,两种契约能够使得供应链的效率达到满意,同时对于影响效率的参数有一定的鲁棒性,并且在一定情况下能协调供应链。相比收益分享契约,引入风险分享的契约形式能够使得供应链协作的效率更高。研究结论对VMI契约设计有参考意义。     

考虑采购资金约束的供应链期权柔性契约

在销售商存在采购预算资金约束下,对供应链期权柔性契约进行了研究.首先,利用非线性规划中的Kuhn-Tucker条件分析了采购资金对销售商的订货决策的影响,并得出了不同资金稀缺程度下的订货策略;其次,讨论了供应商的产量决策问题,并得出了供应商的最优产量安排;再次,研究了供应链的合作问题,并给出了实现供应链合作的具体条件;最后,通过数值分析对研究结论进行了验证和说明.     

景区与旅行社的合作广告协调契约研究

针对旅游供应链上景区与旅行社的合作广告行为,用渠道权力来衡量供应链成员的讨价还价实力,并构建基于渠道权力的供应链协调契约,得到供应链协同下的最优合作广告策略,为政府和行业协会推动景区与旅行社间的合作提供理论基础,同时为研究供应链企业的协调契约提供一种探索性的思路。     

A network-based approach to integrated supply chain design

The inherent complexity of supply chains, combined with their economic importance, has prompted research in supply chain management. While there has been a significant amount of work reported in modelling supply chains, the effectiveness of these models in addressing the complex area of supply chain management is questionable. What is giving added urgency to the need for research in this area are the recent developments in communications that offer the promise of connecting suppliers, assemblers and customers in a seamless network of information that can form integrated supply chain management. This paper aims to address the deficiency in modelling by proposing a methodology that models the integrated supply chain as an abstracted network, called a Trans-Net. The Trans-Net approach offers three main potential advantages. First, the multiple participants in a supply chain can be modelled without undue complexity. Second, it is an approach that allows users to examine the interactions between different considerations so that important attributes such as cost and lead-time can be readily calculated and bottleneck areas identified. Third, it applies a mathematical formalism to the problem, with the potential of being relatively straightforward to computerize.     

Multi-echelon supply chain network design in agile manufacturing

In this paper, we consider a supply chain network design problem in an agile manufacturing scenario with multiple echelons and multiple periods under a situation where multiple customers have heavy demands. Decisions in our supply chain design problem include selection of one or more companies in each echelon, production, inventory, and transportation. We formulate the problem integrating all decisions to minimize the total operational costs including fixed alliance costs between two companies, production, raw material holding, finished products holding, and transportation costs under production and transportation capacity limits. A Lagrangian heuristic is proposed in this paper. Optimizing a Lagrangian relaxation problem provides a lower bound, while a feasible solution is generated by adjustment techniques based on the solution of subproblems at each iteration. Computational results indicate the high quality solutions with less than 5% optimality gap are provided quickly by the approach in this paper. Further, compared to initiative managerial alternatives, an improvement of 15% to 25% is not unusual in certain cases for the proposed approach.     

Eco-efficient supply chain networks: development of a design framework and application to a real case study

This paper presents a supply chain network design framework that is based on multi-objective mathematical programming and that can identify ‘eco-efficient’ configuration alternatives that are both efficient and ecologically sound. This work is original in that it encompasses the environmental impact of both transportation and warehousing activities. We apply the proposed framework to a real-life case study (i.e. Lindt & Sprüngli) for the distribution of chocolate products. The results show that cost-driven network optimisation may lead to beneficial effects for the environment and that a minor increase in distribution costs can be offset by a major improvement in environmental performance. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge on eco-efficient supply chain design and closes the missing link between model-based methods and empirical applied research. It also generates insights into the growing debate on the trade-off between the economic and environmental performance of supply chains, supporting organisations in the eco-efficient configuration of their supply chains.     

Role of flexibility in supply chain design and modeling—Introduction to the special issue

In this introductory note, we describe the motivation behind this special issue on supply chain design and modeling. We begin by noting the potential opportunities offered by flexibility of a system in enhancing its functionalities and capabilities. After defining the nature of flexibility, we briefly describe flexibility in a supply chain, pertinent issues, and potential tools and techniques utilized for designing and modeling flexibility in it. We close out with a brief review of the articles in this issue and their relevance to the interests of decision makers.     

Sustainable supply chain network design: A case of the wine industry in Australia

This paper comes at a time when many companies and people are increasingly facing various global problems linked to sustainability challenges, and when the literature is still scarce on research incorporating all three dimensions of sustainability in supply chain analytical models. The paper conducts a case-based modeling study to address this gap in the area of supply chain network design. We investigate the wine supply chain and propose a generic model for sustainable wine supply chain network design encompassing economic, environmental and social objectives. The case company is a real large-sized wine company located in Australia, for which a customized model is provided. Both models are formulated as a multi-objective mixed-integer program and solved using the augmented ϵ-constraint method by CPLEX. Social implications of the feasible scenarios are examined through introducing social impact coefficients. Non-dominated solutions are obtained and some balanced scenarios are proposed. The results show trade-offs between the objectives, yet more interestingly demonstrate how large is the gap between the existing supply chain configuration and the proposed scenarios in terms of supply chain cost and emissions.     

Frugal innovation for supply chain sustainability in SMEs: multi-method research design

Abstract

In this study, we attempt to establish the missing links between supply chain sustainability and frugal innovation. Our study motivations stem from two facets of the emerging markets: first, the institutional barriers and, second, the resource constraints. We argue that there is a synergy in the concepts of frugal innovation and sustainability in supply chains and there is a need to further explore this synergy. Furthermore, we claim that even in the wake of many success stories in the frugal innovative supply chain management practices from emerging markets such as India, there are very few, if any, attempts made to understand the implications of a sustainability oriented frugal innovations in the particular context. To address this gap, we develop a model to establish the linkage between sustainable supply chains and frugal innovations. Our proposed conceptual framework depicts the hierarchy and interlinks of the identified enablers in developing sustainability oriented frugal innovative capabilities in supply chains. Furthermore, we have empirically validated our theoretical framework using survey data. We observed that most of the interpretive links are supported. These findings extend the understanding of frugal innovation for supply chain sustainability using multi-method research design, while also providing theoretically guidance to managers in the development of frugal innovation capability to achieve sustainability in supply chain in resource constrained environment.     

Prioritising indicators in improving supply chain performance using fuzzy AHP: insights from the case example of four Indian manufacturing companies

Abstract

In this contribution, we aim to prioritise the indicators to enhance the organisational supply chain’s (SC) effectiveness from an industrial perspective. It will help industries to develop strategies for managing the SC effectively and ensuring improvement in performance continuously. To achieve this, this work proposes to use a two-phase research methodology. First, 36 SC performance improvement indicators are recognised from a literature survey and from field and industrial expert’s inputs. Secondly, a structural model is proposed using the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to prioritise the indicators strategically to improve the SC performance. The fuzzy AHP method helps determine the priority of concerns of the identified indicators under fuzzy surroundings. Inputs in this research are taken from four ancillary Indian plastic manufacturing firms. Research findings indicate that collaborations and information exchange dimension indicators obtained the highest priority in improving SC performance. The model proposed is considered very useful for the SC managers/practitioners/decision-makers to understand better and distinguish the essential SC performance improvement indicators and to take systematic decisions specifically to improve the performance of business in a SC context. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to examine the priority ranking of the indicators.     

Integrating sustainable supply chain practices with operational performance: an exploratory study of Chinese SMEs

Abstract

With growing regulatory and market pressure to implement green practices, SMEs are facing enormous challenges to simultaneously improve operational and green performances of their supply chains. The paper aims to understand the green practices adopted by Chinese SMEs in the packaging sector in order to assess the impact of these practices in improving the operational performance. Case study-based research methodology is adopted and semi-structured interviews are conducted to collect data from seven SMEs in this study. Both in-case and cross-case analyses are performed to understand the green practices being adopted with the focus on improving the operational performance. The findings of this study indicate that although most SMEs understand the importance of green practices, they have limited knowledge to integrate these practices to improve operational performance. Integration and alignment of green activities with the operational improvement measures are identified as critical factors to develop an efficient green supply chain.     

Analysing critical success factors to implement sustainable supply chain practices in Indian automobile industry: a case study

The aim of this article is to analyse the critical success factors (CSFs) behind the successful implementation of sustainable supply chain practices in Indian automobile industry. Supply chain sustainability is a critical and timely topic for the developing country like India that captures increasing concerns over sustainability, whether driven by current legislation, public interest or competitive opportunity. Identification of CSFs responsible for sustainable supply chain practices and evaluating their contextual relationships has the potential to affect future government policy, current production operations and identify new business models. In response to this, this paper intends to identify CSFs based on organisational theory and model them to implement sustainable supply chain practices in Indian automobile industry. Twenty-five CSFs to implement sustainable supply chain practices based on organisational theory are recognised by means of the literature review and in discussions with experts in one case study organisation. A solution methodology based on the interpretive structural modelling (ISM) technique is used to propose a structural model, which not only helps in understanding the contextual relationship among these CSFs, but also in determining their interdependence to implement sustainable supply chain practices. Further, the importance of CSFs has been determined based on their driving and dependence power using MICMAC analysis. Our overarching thesis is that the insights gained are useful for Indian automobile industry and would help practitioners, regulators and academicians to focus their efforts towards implementation of sustainable supply chain practices.