We study the important problem of how a supplier should optimally share the consequences of demand uncertainty (i.e., the cost of inventory excesses and shortages) with a retailer in a two-level supply chain facing a finite planning horizon. In particular, we characterize a multiperiod contract form, the promised lead-time contract, that reduces the supplier’s risk from demand uncertainty and t...

Supply chain management (SCM) is one of the most important competitive strategies used by modern enterprises. The main aim of supply chain management is to integrate various suppliers to satisfy market demand. Meanwhile, supplier selection and evaluation plays an important role in establishing an effective supply chain. Traditional supplier selection and evaluation methods focus on the requirem...

H should the excess profit because of inventory pooling be shared amongst firms at different levels along the supply chain? Suppose each of several retailers observes local demand for a common item and places an order at the supplier, which is immediately filled if the supplier has the item in stock. The supplier can fill retailer orders either from their reserved inventories or from a shareabl...

We consider the capacity allocation in a decentralized distribution system with a continuum of retailers, a number of distributors, and a supplier. Retailers privately observe their local demands, and distributors are equipped with information technology that facilitates finer prediction of retailers’ demands. The supplier builds capacity, but observes neither local demands nor the precision of...

pharmacy as the last unit in the pharmaceutical supply chain is responsible for supplying and dispensing medicines to the patients and giving required advices to them, based on their needs and physician’s prescriptions according to standard protocols of the country. beside this responsibility, which is primarily on drugstores, this unit is regarded as a small business unit and should have econo...

An organization's decision on which aspects of its operations to outsource represents a key, strategic issue that should be based on maximizing performance throughout the entire value chain. In certain instances strategic outsourcing decisions make it ideal for firms to source from one particular supplier. Singlesource relationships, in particular, necessitate strategic contract development to ...

The model proposed in this paper aims at identifying the best allocation of a limited quantity of product to a group of retailers supplied by a unique supplier, considering the variability of the demands faced on the market. The proposed approach aims at reducing the problem of demand inflation, inherent to many rationing policies, by considering the mean and the standard deviation of the deman...

This paper describes methods for determining the prices for a discrete set of interrelated products oflered by a single supplier. Each product has a fixed marginal rate per unit, the demand for each product depends upon the price levels of all the products and the supplier’s cost function depends upon the demands for all the products. For spec$c demand function forms, methods are described for ...

in this paper, we develop an inventory model with delay in payments for deteriorating items. in our model, retailer who purchases the items enjoys a fixed credit period offered by his/her supplier and, in turn, also offers a credit period to his/her customers in order to promote the market competition. the demand is assumed to be linear function of the retailer's current-stock level. the effect...