Supply Chain coordination

The Customer Enquiry Management (CEM) process is of strategic importance to non-Make-To-Stock companies but few empirical studies have explored the CEM practices adopted by firms in practice. A study on the Italian capital goods sector by provides the most comprehensive contingencybased framework to date. This paper builds on by conducting multi-case study research with seven global capital goods companies managing CEM in the UK. The evidence suggests that both high levels of coordination and formalization of the CEM process are linked to improved performance. In particular, cross-functional coordination and formalization impact jointly on the performance of companies characterized by a large-sized control problem. Two moderating factors are also identified: the proportion of slightly/highly customized orders and the availability of integrated information systems. Analysis of the impact of supply chain coordination and other globalization factors on CEM shows that CEM practices are: directly influenced by the complexity of the supply chain configuration; and, indirectly influenced by the types of relationships with supply chain partners. Two sources of complexity that result from operating in a global context are also identified: coordinating the activities of sales structures distributed around the world; and, managing global customers with different languages and cultures. In terms of managerial implications, the results indicate that coordination with partners along the supply chain is needed at the customer enquiry stage and constraints linked to global customers should be considered when structuring CEM. ª

In the literature of cooperative (co-op) advertising, the focus of the research is on a relationship in which a manufacturer is the leader and retailers are followers. This relationship implies the dominance of the manufacturer over retailers. Recent market trends have shown a shift in power from manufacturers to retailers. Retailers, as aresult, may now possess equal or even greater power than a manufacturer in some instances when it comes to retailing. Based on this new market phenomenon, we intend to explore the role of co-op advertising in a manufacturer-retailer supply chain through brand name investments, local advertising expenditures, and sharing rules of advertising expenses. Two co-op advertising models are developed and compared. The first co-op advertising model is based on the traditional leader-follower relationship of a manufacturer and a retailer. The second model incorporates partnership into co-op advertising coordination. Business examples and managerial implications of the models have been discussed. A cooperative bargaining technique is utilized to implement the partnership co-op advertising model.

The construction industry in general is characterized with high fragmentation, low productivity, cost and time overruns, and conflicts compared with other manufacturing industries. Supply chain management as an innovative management mode provides a new solution for resolving these problems from systems perspective. Coordination is the core issue to improve construction performance in construction supply chain (CSC). In this paper, the concepts of CSC and CSC management are defined. Furthermore, the inter-organization problems that effect CSC coordination are identified. Considering the Internet fosters the integration of construction processes and provides an efficient platform for CSC coordination, this paper presents two types of Internet-enabled coordination mechanisms: market mechanism, such as auction and contracting, and coordination flow, including information hub and electronic marketplace, for improving construction performance and to accelerate the innovations in the construction industry.

This paper defines cooperation as the process of coordinating the objectives and activities of supply chain (SC) members. It also focuses on cooperation as a solution for hybrid coordination mechanism to form the basis for semiconductor industry supply chain management. In the complex and competitive environment of semiconductor industry supply chain, independent system members are facing the difficult task of providing/sharing incentives resulting from e-market activities in a fair and equitable manner. So, various other activities are necessary for the e-market to make revenue sharing operations more stable and reliable. In this context, the importance of coalition in enhancing the e-market capability, for revenue generation and sharing, is used to develop a possible mechanism for financial compensation to the supply chain members. Interpreting the supply chain as cooperation, the concepts of the Shapely value are used in this paper for analysing the revenue sharing problem. The motivation behind such a scheme is to align the supply chain members' cost structure with the bidding value during auction and bargaining for e-procurement. The appropriateness of the Shapely value is verified to ensure that a stable solution exists. The practical implication of this paper is how to make right decisions about revenue sharing. The principal contribution of this approach is for establishing a pooling coalition in order to provide a stable and cooperative solution.

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Le transport multimodal en Europe est sous-employé. Nous proposons une explication basée sur la sous-utilisation par les acteurs de l’industrie logistique des outils et des technologies d’interfaçage de systèmes d’information et de la radio fréquence dans l’identification des flux logistique. Cette adoption par les différents maillons de la chaîne d’approvisionnement est toujours repoussée car les avantages économiques n’en sont pas perçus. Nous proposons de réévaluer ces avantages en termes d’efficience en utilisant d’autres critères. Les chargeurs, leurs clients et les transporteurs sont pénalisés par les dysfonctionnements, retards et autres écarts par rapport à une marche normale des flux. Cette approche s’appuie sur l’analyse effectuée dans le cadre du projet TransLogisTIC financé par la Région Wallonne en Belgique. Grâce aux nouveaux services proposés sous forme de logiciels en accès partagé, les moyens et les résultats présentés s’appliquent en particulier aux PME dans le transport et le service logistique qui composent le principal du secteur en Europe.

Many business-to-business electronic marketplaces (EMs) are now offering collaboration functionalities, but the collaboration concept in an EM context has not been studied systematically. This paper is a preliminary effort to explore and categorise the different types of collaboration functionalities that may be offered by EMs. By surveying websites, we identified five types of horizontal collaboration (buying groups) and four kinds of vertical supply chain collaboration in EMs. Our findings suggest that supply chain collaboration tends to be supported more than buying groups by existing EMs, and a high percentage of EMs now offers supply chain coordination and integration. Among online buying groups, the exchange-catalogue model is the most popular, possibly since it puts fewer burdens on members and coordinators. r

Humanitarian relief environments engage a large number and variety of actors, each with different missions, interests, capacity, and logistics expertise. While coordination mechanisms within the domain of commercial supply chain management have been well studied, coordination in humanitarian relief chains is still in its infancy. In this study, we review the challenges in coordinating humanitarian relief chains and describe the current and emerging coordination practices in disaster relief. We also examine some widely practiced supply chain coordination mechanisms and evaluate their adaptability to the unique relief environment.

Supply chain management in Albania has received little attention in the recent literature. Many companies now realize that actions taken by one member of the chain can influence the profitability of all others in the chain. Companies are increasingly thinking in terms of competing as part of a supply chain against other supply chains, rather than as a single firm

We introduce a composite (CP) contract for a two-stage supply chain by organically combining two component contracts: a buy back (BB) contract and a quantity flexibility (QF) contract. The CP contract is shown to have advantages over both component contracts in terms of supply chain coordination, profit allocation, and risk allocation. In particular, we obtain the following results: (a) as long as one of the component contracts is able to coordinate the supply chain, so is the CP contract. Moreover, when contract parameters are constrained, we find situations where the CP contract coordinates the supply chain when neither of the component contracts coordinates. (b) When contract parameters are constrained, the CP contract is more flexible in terms of profit allocation among supply chain members than the component contracts. (c) The CP contract is more flexible in terms of risk allocation than the component contracts.

Various contracts may coordinate a simple supplier- retailer channel, yet the contracts proposed in prior research and tested in a laboratory setting do not perform as standard theory predicts. The supplier, endowed with all bargaining power, can neither fully coordinate the channel nor extract all of the channel profit. Bargaining experiments therefore have resulted in the development of social preference

We study a coordination contract for a supplier-retailer channel producing and selling a fashionable product exhibiting a stochastic price-dependent demand. The product's selling season is short, and the supply chain faces great demand uncertainty. We consider a scenario where the supplier reserves production capacity for the retailer in advance, and permits the retailer to place an order not exceeding the reserved capacity after a demand information update during a leadtime. We formulate a two-stage optimization problem in which the supplier decides the amount of capacity reservation in the first stage, and the retailer determines the order quantity and the retail price after observing the demand information in the second stage. We propose a three-parameter risk and profit sharing contract that coordinates the supply chain. The proposed contract is robust which permits any agreed-upon division of the supply chain profit between the channel members.

Abstract: Supply chain coordination plays a critical role in integrating different actors along the supply chain to enhance performance. This research focuses on supply chain coordination and its three determinants: namely, responsibility interdependence, uncertainty, and interfunctional conflict. Research propositions were developed to conceptualise how supply chain coordination is driven by its determinants. The propositions were tested by a case study in a fashion firm to examine the differences between the theory and the practice of coordination. Findings showed that the firm carried out only piecemeal coordination in defining and fulfilling customer needs.

Keywords: Case studies, Fashion, Supply chain management

Supply chain (SC) coordination can be pursued by adopting a centralized or decentralized decision-making approach. The former option occurs when there is a unique decision maker in the SC, the latter when several independent actors make decision at the different SC stages. SC contracts are a useful tool to make the several SC actors of a decentralized setting behave coherently among each other, as if the chain were operated in a centralized fashion.

Vertical cooperative (co-op) advertising is a marketing strategy in which the retailer runs local advertising and the manufacturer pays for a portion of its entire costs. This paper considers vertical co-op advertising along with pricing decisions in a supply chain; this consists of one manufacturer and one retailer where demand is influenced by both price and advertisement. Four game-theoretic models are established in order to study the effect of supply chain power balance on the optimal decisions of supply chain members. Comparisons and insights are developed. These embrace three non-cooperative games including Nash, Stackelberg-manufacturer and Stackelberg-retailer, and one cooperative game. In the latter case, both the manufacturer and the retailer reach the highest profit level; subsequently, the feasibility of bargaining game is discussed in a bid to determine a scheme to share the extra joint profit. (M.M. SeyedEsfahani), [email protected] (M. Biazaran), [email protected] (M. Gharakhani).

We consider the component-purchasing problem for a supply chain consisting of one retailer and two complementary suppliers with different lead-times. The retailer purchases a specific component from each supplier for assembling into a fashionable product. After ordering from the long-lead-time supplier (Supplier 1) and before ordering from the short-lead-time supplier (Supplier 2), the retailer can update its demand forecast for the product. The retailer can partially cancel its order from Supplier 1 after forecast updating. By formulating the problem as a dynamic optimization problem, we explore the measures that can be deployed to coordinate the retailer's ordering decisions with forecast updating. We analytically show that the supply chain can be coordinated if both suppliers offer a returns policy and Supplier 1 charges an order-cancelation penalty to the retailer. We find that the coordination mechanism is independent of demand distribution and the forecast updating process. We further show that it is easier for the suppliers to coordinate the supply chain if market observation indicates the future market demand is sufficiently large. We also study the case where demand is price-dependent and propose a generalized revenue-sharing contract to coordinate the supply chain. We discuss the academic and managerial implications of the theoretical findings.

This paper investigates a multi-product manufacturer-retailer supply chain where demand of each product is jointly influenced by price and advertising expenditure. We propose a Stackelberg game framework under two power scenarios. In the first, we consider the traditional approach where the manufacturer is the leader. In the latter, we allow the retailer to act as the dominant member of the supply chain. Bi-level programming approach is applied to find the optimal equilibrium prices, advertising expenditures and production policies; then several solution procedures, including imperialist competitive algorithm, modified imperialist competitive algorithm, and evolution strategy are proposed. Finally numerical experiments are carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of models as well as solution procedures.

The business environment is changing fast and radically. Traditional capacity planning has limitations in today's dynamic environments, particularly from a strategic perspective in the aerospace sector. This document sets out to identify the unique characteristics of the aerospace industry and compare the traditional views of capacity planning and modern concepts in SCP relevant to the sector. Key findings are summarised from an analysis of the literature on strategic capacity planning. The importance of considering demand uncertainty, technology uncertainty and supply uncertainty is highlighted. Two case studies in the aero- engine sector are presented. A collaborative virtual organisation requires Strategic Capacity Planning (SCP) that focuses not only on economies of scale but also on coordination, flexibility and responsiveness. An integrated framework for addressing SCP in the aerospace industry is presented. Public

One of the widely used strategies for achieving system integration in the arena of supply chain management is the vendor-managed inventory (VMI) approach. Although there exists a large amount of literature that examines various aspects of VMI, little looks at how this model evolves as the implementation progresses and matures. Therefore, this paper shows how to analyze the intrinsic evolutionary mechanism of the VMI supply chains by applying the evolutionary game theories. It is found that during the early stage of the VMI implementation, the upstream supplier will have some profit loss; however, as the transaction quantity increases in the long run, which will eventually benefit the entire chain, it is necessary for the downstream buyer to share profit with the upstream supplier to cover the supplier's initial loss in order to exploit and sustain the benefits of the VMI. Additionally, the impact factors for VMI to become an evolutionary stable strategy are examined. All the results identify the conditions under which the VMI model is favorable over the traditional chain structure and shed lights on when and why collaboration is critical for a successful, long-term implementation of VMI.

INTRODUCTION: This synthesis is based on conversations and readings during a backstop visit by Michigan State University (MSU) faculty to the MINAGRI/MSU/USAID Food Security Research Project in August 2001. Many of the formal MINAGRI studies with reliable farm-level coffee data are from prewar times. As such, some of the observations herein are tentative. This synthesis shows the need to update and improve household-level information on Rwanda's coffee sector, so that appropriate policies may be put into place to increase the level and diversity of smallholder and rural business income. OVERVIEW OF COFFEE SUPPLY CHAIN COORDINATION ISSUES IN RWANDA: There is considerable interest in Rwandan coffee among private investors and donor agencies. Some innovative work is underway in improving processing and marketing Rwandan coffee. Prospects for capturing a share for Rwanda of the growing high value coffee market depend on understanding the final market, and making wise business connections and investments. Prospects for improving Rwanda's coffee harvest to facilitate such a market success story depend on supply chain considerations that begin on the farm and with inputs into coffee farming. To be able to understand how farmers will react to new opportunities, farm level information must be developed to accompany and complement varietal, input, processing, and marketing initiatives to form a comprehensive supply chain approach. Initiatives in new varieties, processing and marketing appear to have correctly identified

This paper studies a supply chain model in which a single supplier sells a single product to a single retailer who faces the newsvendor problem. The retailer is loss averse. The results show that the optimal production quantity with decentralized decision making with a wholesale price contract is less than that with centralized decision making. The supply chain can achieve channel coordination with buy back and target rebate contracts. With buy back contracts, the supply chain system profits can be allocated arbitrarily between the supplier and retailer. A new kind of contract, the incremental buy back contract, gives similar results as with the buy back contract. The advantages and drawbacks of these three types of contracts are analyzed with numerical examples.

This paper presents an innovative approach to support the definition of strategies for the design of alternative configurations of hospital supply chains. This approach was developed around a hybrid Tabu Search / Variable Neighbourhood Search metaheuristic, that uses several neighbourhood structures. The flexibility of the procedure allows its application to supply chains with different topologies and atypical cost characteristics. A preliminary computational experience shows the approach potential in solving large scale supply chain configuration problems. The future incorporation of this approach in a broader Decision Support System (DSS) will provide a tool that can significantly contribute to an increase of healthcare supply chains efficiency and encourage the establishment of collaborative partnerships between their members.

Coordination between two different business entities is an important way to gain competitive advantage as it lowers supply chain cost. This paper reviews literature dealing with buyer vendor coordination models that have used quantity discount as coordination mechanism under deterministic environment and classified the various models. An effort has also been made to identify critical issues and scope of future research.

The study proposes a supply chain contractual coordination model based on the product lifecycle information-sharing effort and consumers' price sensitivity to a product with the Blockchain system. is paper examined the following five scenarios: (1) centralized supply chain with Blockchain system-based product lifecycle information sharing investment; (2) Stackelberg leader retailer processed and invested Blockchain system scenario; (3) retailer processed the Blockchain system cost-sharing scenario; (4) retailer processed Blockchain system investment through bargaining the revenue-sharing model; (5) Blockchain system investment under the cost and revenue-sharing contract. e study used the game theory reverse induction method to compare the Nash equilibrium solutions under different decision-making scenarios and discussed the chain member's constraint condition of Blockchain system investment. We simulated and analysed the products' lifecycle information sharing effort cost factor, the influence of price sensitivity coefficient, and expected profits of the supplier and retailer. e study results show that the product lifecycle information sharing effort under the Blockchain system increases the profit of the whole chain and decreases with the increase of customer's price sensitivity coefficient.

This framework aims to investigate the influence of supply chain efficiency (SCE) at the Karachi Publishing industry (KPI) Operational Performance (OP). The on-page study is considering, as a
factor exercise, it investigates the outcome of SCE variable on (KPO), (OP). The Study managers were surveyed the 39+ KPI Organizations. 121 managers and 190 managers from practical data were collected, developed by experts and judges interviewed by a panel committee questioned and improved. analytical capability such as definitive analytical, correlations, and were used multiple regression was used. Study results reveal a positive alliance among the SCI and SCO organization 'OP'. Results also reveal that the KPO organization manager Supply chain were approximately
equal in priority integration and internal integration indicators of over supplier integration indicators. However, company integration indicators are the most essential indicators, obey
Internal terms integration, and in the end to the supplier integration. Furthermore, Experimental results were identified that there powerful the three components of the SCP and the interactions and interactions between them and the OP. Finally, the results showed that respondents believe that the SCP (Integration) and the relationship between OP. The conclusion indicated that internal integration was and have the most impact on the OP, it then Supplier integration and eventually company alliance and then customer alliance. Finally, the on-page study recommends considering making amends with the three components of the SCP because of their mutual relationship

Supply chain coordination has become a critical success factor for supply chain management (SCM) and effectively improving the performance of organizations in various industries. Coordination refers to the integration of different parts of an organization or different organizations in supply chain to accomplish a collective set of tasks and to achieve mutual benefits. This paper defines the concepts of construction supply chain (CSC) and construction supply chain management, especially regards construction supply chain management as the coordination of interorganizations decision making in construction supply chain and the integration of key construction business processes and key members involved in construction supply chain. Much research and practice indicate that there still are many problems in construction, most of which are supply chain problems. The research analyzes the problems in construction supply chain. In order to resolve these problems and improving the performance of construction, an agent-based framework for construction supply chain coordination is designed based on the agent technology and multiattribute negotiation and multiattribute utility theory (MAUT). The framework, which integrates the construction organizations in construction supply chain and multiattribute negotiation model into a multiagent system (MAS), provides a solution for supply chain coordination in construction through multiattribute negotiation mechanism on the Internet. Finally, the prototype of the framework is developed and tentatively run based on an imaginary construction project. The trial run reveals the feasibility to implement the agent-based framework for coordination in construction. D

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation focuses on the life-cycle environmental performance of products. EPR has significant implications for management theory and practice. However, there is very little operations management research that examines the influence of EPR policy parameters on product design, the interactions among these parameters, and strategic managerial responses to combinations of parameters that constitute EPR instruments. We analytically establish optimal product design and pricing decisions by a manufacturer producing and selling a remanufacturable, durable product, in response to various implementations of EPR. We model a single manufacturer supplying a remanufacturable product to a single customer over multiple periods. The customer has a continuing need for the services of the product and optimizes between the costs of product replacement and the costs of operating the product. We model two environmental design attributes of the product that impact costs to both the manufacturer as well as the customer -a one-dimensional "more is better" measure of environmental performance that captures the environmental impact of the product during use, and a measure of product remanufacturability that captures the environmental impact of the product post-use. From an environmental standpoint, we find that higher costs for environmental impacts induce environmentally favorable product designs. However, higher environmental costs result in lower firm profits. Coordinating contracts are known in the literature to lead to higher supply chain profits.

While over the past 4 years more than 1000 B2B electronic markets that cater to a wide spectrum of industries have been established, many of them have already disappeared. This reality can be explained by several factors, two of which we think are important: the transaction fees that owners of these markets charge participants, and the supply chain coordination mechanisms that these markets do (or actually do not) facilitate. In this paper, we take the viewpoint of supply chain coordination to analyze the decision of suppliers and buyers to do or not do business in electronic markets while selling perishable products with random demand. r

The construction industry in general is characterized with high fragmentation, low productivity, cost and time overruns, and conflicts compared with other manufacturing industries. Supply chain management as an innovative management mode provides a new solution for resolving these problems from systems perspective. Coordination is the core issue to improve construction performance in construction supply chain (CSC). In this paper, the concepts of CSC and CSC management are defined. Furthermore, the inter-organization problems that effect CSC coordination are identified. Considering the Internet fosters the integration of construction processes and provides an efficient platform for CSC coordination, this paper presents two types of Internet-enabled coordination mechanisms: market mechanism, such as auction and contracting, and coordination flow, including information hub and electronic marketplace, for improving construction performance and to accelerate the innovations in the construction industry.

Recently, vendors and retailers have begun to forge cooperative agreements to manage inventory, which requires sharing demand information and setting mutually agreed upon performance targets for the supply chain. This paper describes the market forecasting and inventory management components of a Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) decision support system and how this system was implemented by a major apparel manufacturer and over 30 of its retail partners. The DSS also helped the vendor and retailers arrive at jointly agreed upon customer service level and inventory turnover targets. As a result of implementing this VMI system, customer service levels improved dramatically, often coupled with a significant improvement in inventory turnover. The VMI performance results relative to the existing system and related insights for supply chain coordination are discussed. Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) systems have been initiated by certain manufacturers to improve both retail customer service levels and inventory turnover. VMI systems achieve these goals through more accurate sales forecasting methods and more effective distribution of inventory in the supply chain. The VMI system allows the retailer to expand the assortment of the vendor's products that can be offered within a given retail space. This improves the profitability of the vendor's brand for both the retailer and the vendor. Retailers working alone are generally not able to achieve the same productivity increases because the vendor is the one able to provide a more responsive replenishment system based on more precise demand information.

T his paper studies the impact of strategic customer behavior on supply chain performance. We start with a newsvendor seller facing forward-looking customers. The seller initially charges a regular price but may salvage the leftover inventory at a lower salvage price after random demand is realized. Customers anticipate future sales and choose purchase timing to maximize their expected surplus. We characterize the rational expectations equilibrium, where we find that the seller's stocking level is lower than that in the classic model without strategic customers. We show that the seller's profit can be improved by promising either that quantities available will be limited (quantity commitment) or that prices will be kept high (price commitment). In most cases, both forms of commitment are not credible in a centralized supply chain with a single seller. However, decentralized supply chains can use contractual arrangements as indirect commitment devices to attain the desired outcomes with commitment. Decentralization has generally been associated with coordination problems, but we present the contrasting view that disparate interests within a supply chain can actually improve overall supply chain performance. In particular, with strategic customer behavior, we find that (i) a decentralized supply chain with a wholesale price contract may perform strictly better than a centralized supply chain; (ii) contracts widely studied in the supply chain coordination literature (e.g., markdown money, sales rebates, and buyback contracts) can serve as a commitment device as well as an incentive-coordinating device; and (iii) some of the above contracts cannot allocate profits arbitrarily between supply chain members because of strategic customer behavior.

Billions of dollars are being allocated for influenza pandemic preparedness, and vaccination is a primary weapon for fighting influenza outbreaks. The influenza vaccine supply chain has characteristics that resemble the news vendor problem, but possesses several characteristics that distinguish it from typical supply chains. Differences include a nonlinear value of sales (caused by the nonlinear health benefits of vaccination due to infection dynamics) and vaccine production yield issues. We show that production risks, taken currently by the vaccine manufacturer, lead to insufficient supply of vaccine. Unfortunately, several supply contracts that coordinate buyer (governmental public health service) and supplier (vaccine manufacturer) incentives in industrial supply chains can not fully coordinate the influenza vaccine supply chain. We design a variant of the cost sharing contract and show that it provides incentives to both parties so that the supply chain achieves global optimization and hence gurantees sufficient supply of vaccine.

Early order commitment (EOC) is one of the strategies for supply chain coordination, wherein a retailer places its orders to a supplier in advance, i.e., the retailer's ordering lead time is longer than the regular delivery time from the supplier to the retailer. This paper explores the value of practicing EOC in a supply chain with demand uncertainty and lost sales. It also examines the impact of forecasting errors and inventory policies used by the retailers on the performance of the supply chain. The methodology adopted in this study is computer simulation. Analyses of the simulation outputs show that: 1 using the periodical review (s, S) policy can reduce the cost of the supply chain in many environments compared to deterministic lot-sizing rules such as the economic order quantity rule, the periodic order quantity rule and the Silver-Meal rule 2 the EOC strategy can generate significant cost savings for the whole supply chain when the retailers' forecasting errors are not too large or the supplier's forecasting horizon is relatively long.

I n this paper we analyze the impact of supply-side externalities existing among downstream retailers on supply chain performance. Namely, multiple retail firms face stochastic demand, purchase the product from the upstream wholesaler, and make stocking decisions that affect all other retailers in the same echelon. Two sources of inefficiencies exist in such a supply chain: One is double marginalization and the other is externalities among retailers. Whereas double marginalization always leads to inventory understocking at the retail echelon, we find that the implications of externalities are more complex, because different externalities can improve or deteriorate supply chain performance, relative to the situation without externalities. We show that the effect of externalities depends critically on whether the stocking decisions of retailers exhibit positive (complementarity) or negative (substitutability) externalities, and whether retailers are managed centrally or competitively. Under complementarity, competing retailers tend to understock the product (compared with the centralized inventory management at the retail level), thus aggravating the double-marginalization effect. This is the opposite of what happens under substitutability, where competing retailers tend to overstock the product, thus compensating for the double-marginalization effect. Hence, we conclude that supply chain coordination between retailers and the wholesaler is most important when there is downstream competition that exhibits complementarity. From the wholesaler's point of view, competition among retailers is preferable over centralization of retailers when externalities are negative, and vice versa when externalities are positive. Moreover, with competition on complements, both retailers and the wholesaler have incentives to coordinate the supply chain.

Supply chain management (SCM) and interorganizational information systems (IOIS) have gained significant importance in recent years, aided by anecdotal success stories of firms obtaining competitive advantage using these systems. Historically, the two streams of research have developed relatively independently, with operations and logistics researchers studying supply chains and information systems/information technology researchers covering the IOIS domain. Here, we describe the enhancement of knowledge that can be obtained by juxtaposing these two areas. This research study proposes a framework, the "supply chain management-interorganizational information system (SCM-IOIS) matrix," to help understand the alignment of IOIS capabilities with the needs of supply chain members. The framework is validated using data from IndustryWeek's census of manufacturers. The findings from this exploratory study support our proposition that firms align the levels of IOIS with the sophistication and coordination of their SCM efforts.

In a firm, potential conflict exists between manufacturing and sales departments. Salespersons prefer to order from manufacturing departments in advance so that they can secure products in the amount they need to satisfy customers in time. This time in advance strategy is defined as ''lead-time hedging." While this hedging strategy is good for the sales department to guarantee the right quantity at the right time for customers, it adds additional costs and pressure to the manufacturing department. One scheme to resolve this conflict is to introduce a fair ''internal price," charged by the manufacturing department to the sales department. In this paper, two models involving a fair internal price are introduced. In one model, a Nash game is played to reach an optimal strategy for both parties. In the other model, a Stackelberg game is played in which the manufacturing department serves as the leader. We show that these two models can successfully reduce lead-time hedging determined by the salesperson and can increase the firm's overall profit, as compared to the traditional model without considering the internal price. More insights have also been analyzed that include the comparisons of the manufacturer's and the salesperson's profits among the traditional model, the Nash game model, the Stackelberg game model, and the centralized global optimization model.

In the last decade, supply chain coordination has been one of the highly investigated subjects related to industrial logistics systems, because of its relevant role played on production support logistics. There is a growing interest in the analysis and the measurement performances, because performance analysis allows to build supporting decisions tools for design, planning and management of the supply chain. In the paper, an analytical approach for performance analysis based on a decomposition principle is presented. The approach is applied to a serial supply chain that consists of two levels of suppliers, a production plant and a distribution centre, and operates as a pull system. This configuration is typical for bulk materials like grain. The method allows to approximately calculate performance indicators (such as customer satisfaction and inventory levels) taking into account all the interactions between the different echelons of the supply chain. The accuracy of the approximations is confirmed by results obtained through a simulation model. The numerical analysis allowed to outline interesting and non intuitive behaviours of the performance indicators among the different stages of the supply chain.

This paper develops a simulation optimisation approach for solving the Lot-Sizing Problem (LSP) in Make-to-Order (MTO) supply chain. For this purpose, a discrete event simulation model was firstly implemented as a tool in estimating Order Mean Flow Time (OMFT) performance. Secondly, a multiple-objective optimisation was achieved by applying Response Surface Methodology (RSM). A comprehensive case study is detailed which involves a multi-product, multi-stage, multi-location production planning with capacity

Companies across industries have admired the success of Dell Computersin using modularity as part of a mass customization strategy to achieve build-to-order and a streamlined supply chain. Many companies are attempting to emulate this successful model, including the American automotive industry. This paper focuses on how the auto industry has been attempting to move to modularity, in part, motivated by a desire to build cars to order. This movement has led to major changes in supply chain practices based partly on imitation of successful keiretsu models in Japan and a move toward modules. This study finds significant impact of modularity on outsourcing, product development, and supply chain coordination based on interviews conducted with automakers and suppliers from 2000-2003. Based on our interviews, we observe that modularity has accompanied a major reorganization of the automotive supplier industry. We identify two major issues that appear to block U.S. automakers from gaining most of the advantages possible through modularity. First, most modularity activities appear to be primarily strategically cost reduction driven, leaving the potential of modularity for mass customization largely untapped. Second, the shift in industry reorganization has not been accompanied by changes in the supply chain infrastructure to encourage long-term partnerships. We contrast this to the more gradual approach used by Toyota as it incorporates modularity on a selective basis and moves to a build-to-order model.

This paper develops a simulation optimisation approach for solving the Lot-Sizing Problem (LSP) in Make-to-Order (MTO) supply chain. For this purpose, a discrete event simulation model was firstly implemented as a tool in estimating Order Mean Flow Time (OMFT) performance. Secondly, a multiple-objective optimisation was achieved by applying Response Surface Methodology (RSM). A comprehensive case study is detailed which involves a multi-product, multi-stage, multi-location production planning with capacity-A multi-product lot size in make-to-order supply chain 247 constrained and stochastic parameters such as lot arrivals order, transit time, set-up time, processing time, etc. The objective of the proposed approach is to determine the fixed optimal lot size for each manufacturing product type that will ensure OMFT target value for each finished product type. The study results illustrate that the LSP in MTO sector is viable and provide a prototype for further research on simulation optimisation approaches.

Customization is a critical success factor in current business environment. One of the most important components that make fast and inexpensive customization possible is electronic supply chain design (e-SCD). e -SCD is a supply chain design which integrates and coordinates suppliers, manufacturers, logistic channels, and customers using information technology (IT). In this study, a model that shows the effects of e -SCD on the customization capability of companies is developed. From previous s tudies, the model identifies three major effects of e -SCDelectronic linkage effect, supply chain coordination effect, and co-engineering effect. The model also shows a process through which an electronic supply chain network is transformed from a simple infrastructure for data exchange into a knowledge-sharing network for fast response and customization. The model is tested using the data collected from automobile industry in Korea. The results show that e -SCD has significant effects on the supply chain coordination and coengineering. This implies that e-SCD can be an effective management tool to deliver customized products with right timing and price. It is also shown that the 'involvement' of entities in a supply chain is a critical factor in converting a supply chain network from an infrastructure for data exchange to a knowledge-sharing network .