Supply Chain Coordination Mechanism Research Articles

Supply Chain Coordination Mechanism Based on Lead-Time Compression under Elastic Demand

The optimization for profit coordination of the supply chain under elastic demand, which involves a two-level supply chain consisted of a supplier and a buyer, is discussed. Supplier supplies in JIT mode and supply chain members reduce lead-time through lead-time crashing to reduce costs. Based on game theory and the aim of minimizing the total cost of each party respectively, a two-level stackelberg leader-follower game model, in which buyer is the leader and supplier is the follower, is established. Buyer takes all the crashing cost and gives incentives to supplier to promote cooperation. A comparison is given among the profits of buyer, supplier and system after and not after lead-time crashing respectively, and the increased benefit among the three parties after lead-time crashing is analyzed, too. Finally, a numerical example and a simulation analysis are given to show the effect of the variations of the parameters on the increased benefit of buyer, supplier and system.

IT-Based Classification for Supply Chain Coordination Mechanisms

Managing dependencies via coordination is an effective solution for the problems that arise from these interdependencies in supply chains. This can be practical via a set of methods called coordination mechanisms. Numerous coordination mechanisms have been discussed before in literature. This paper develops a new classification of these mechanisms on the basis of information technology (IT) impact on them. This classification proves the important role of IT in better coordinating supply chains and help managers distinguish between coordination mechanisms that are created and improved by information technology and thus lead them to have the best choice based on their infrastructures and organization type.

The Research of United Scheduling and Coordination in Three-Layer Supply Chain Model

With the rapid development of the global economy, more and more enterprises emphasize on the coordination with the partners to improve the supply chain competitive capability. This paper focuses on the united scheduling of the three-layer supply chain and the coordination mechanisms of agile supply chain. The objective is to minimize the total transportation cost and improve the customer’s service level, which is achieved by scheduling the jobs and delivering them to the next stage in batches. Based on the features of the optimal scheduling, a dynamic programming algorithm is proposed.

Coordinating a three-stage closed-loop supply chain considering the effects of changes in the return rates and number of plants

An inventory coordination mechanism in a closed-loop supply chain is examined in this paper. A three-stage closed-loop supply chain model benefiting from the proposed formulas in the literature is reformulated in the paper. The effects of changes in the return rates and the number of plants on the joint total relevant cost and cycle time are investigated with these rearranged formulas. This investigation is performed by two dimensions, which are equal cycle time and integer multiplier coordination mechanisms. The results of these two coordination mechanisms are finally compared and the usability of the model results on real-life applications is emphasised in the paper.

Towards a chain coordination model for quality management strategies to strengthen the competitiveness of European pork producers

This paper presents a new chain coordination model for quality management strategies of European pork supply chains. It is a result of qualitative research into intensive and extensive pork production in seven selected countries consisting of a literature review, country-specific expert interviews and case studies. The model defines strategic roles and responsibilities for quality management actors on normative, strategic and operational levels and groups these actors into the categories certification, coordination and control. New actors have been defined for the category 'coordination of quality management strategies': the chain quality board (normative), the network coordinator (strategic) and the quality broker (operational level). The proposed concept of a quality broker represents an innovative approach to facilitate implementation of coordination mechanisms in pork supply chains. In addition, coordination mechanisms have been defined and classified under the headings contracts, information technology, information sharing and joint decision making. The model represents an organizational concept applicable to a broad diversity of pork supply chains. It is intended to facilitate the establishment and management of quality management strategies to strengthen the competitiveness of European pork producers.

Supply chain coordination mechanisms under flexible contracts

In supply chain management, an important research direction is to coordinate the supply chain through introducing flexible contracts. A supply chain contract is flexible if it can satisfy two conditions at the same time: the supply chain is coordinated, and the total profit of the supply chain can be arbitrarily divided between the supply chain members. This paper puts out two contracts, a flexible return contract and a flexible wholesale price discount contract. In contrast to many of literature, the supply chain contracts with an endogenous wholesale price is specifically considered, and a detailed sensitivity analysis of the contract parameters is given. The paper also discusses the application of the contract in vendor-managed inventory (VMI) mode. The results show that the supply chain's performance is improved after introducing above contracts. All the findings are illustrated by numerical examples.

Wealth Creation Through Coordination and Efficiency in the Rural Procurement Supply Chain: An Examination of Mechanisms, Structures and Costs

The base of the pyramid (BOP) is characterized by severe resource constraints, yet organizational processes in this context are highly coordination-intensive. One such coordination-intensive process is the rural procurement supply chain. We examine coordination problems and mechanisms in rural procurement supply chains. While much case study evidence of successful operations of the rural supply chains have been cited in the literature, not much effort has been devoted to analyzing informational and coordination problems at the BOP. For instance, what is the optimal set of coordination mechanisms for managing dependencies and creating value in the rural procurement supply chain? What is the value of the information structure and the resulting decisions to the farmer? To answer these questions and to find solutions to such informational and coordination problems, we used a research approach based on analyzing a large set of cases, identifying the coordination problems, formulating a set of coordination problems as decision-making situations and developing a simulation model to test solutions to such problems. The analytical model lead to the formulation of a set of propositions related to the coordination structures and tradeoffs related to costs of coordination, vulnerability and production. The decision-making models helped identify a set of strategies (expected value and minimax) for the farmer, that can yield different payoffs, based on different world states (such as valuable information or higher price and farther distance). Our simulation of the rural procurement supply chain used an agent-based model to implement the algorithms that utilized the strategies, to make decisions about acquiring additional information and transporting to the warehouse. Our findings provide initial insight into effective coordination mechanisms and decision-making of the farmer for value creation in the rural supply chain.

Mobile service supply chain coordination with revenue sharing contracts

The mobile service supply chain has unique characteristics that differentiate it from the traditional supply chain. For example, there is no tangible inventory and the sales revenue is directly collected from the customers by the Mobile Network Operator (MNO). This research studies the coordination mechanism of the mobile service supply chain and establishes and analyses a model of revenue-sharing contract. We show that, under certain conditions, the revenue-sharing contract can maximise the expected profit and coordinate the mobile service supply chain. We also illustrate the results using a numerical example.

Coordination in humanitarian relief chains: Practices, challenges and opportunities

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.

A mutually beneficial coordination mechanism for a one-supplier multi-retailers supply chain

In this study, we investigate devising a mutually beneficial coordination mechanism for a supply chain system consisting of a single supplier and a group of heterogeneous retailers. We employ the assumptions in the basic EOQ model, namely, deterministic demand, no shortages, and deterministic lead-time in our study. We also assume that the supplier has complete knowledge of the relevant cost parameters of the retailers. The supplier's (finite) production capacity is sufficient to meet the retailer's demand. All of the retailers follow an integer-ratio policy, i.e., each retailer purchases at an integer or reciprocal of an integer multiple of the supplier's setup interval. We assume that the maximum cost a retailer is prepared to incur cannot exceed its budget constraint when adopting the supplier's production setup interval. In this mutually beneficial coordination mechanism, the supplier offers a price discount to compensate the cost increase a retailer encounters from adopting the supplier's production setup interval. Therefore, our price–discount strategy encourages the retailers to coordinate their replenishment orders to accommodate the supplier's cost saving policies. Also, we propose a savings–sharing policy that asks the supplier to share part of its saving as retailers are willing to implement the designated replenishment schedule. Numerical experiments show that our mutually beneficial coordination mechanism could efficiently generate further cost savings for both the supplier and the retailers in the supply chain. The results also indicate that the cost savings for the supplier may not be sufficient to compensate the cost increase for the retailers when the major setup cost is below a threshold value.

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT COORDINATION MECHANISMS

There is growing interest from industry and academic disciplines regarding coordination in supply chains, particularly addressing coordination mechanisms available to eliminate sub-optimization within supply chains. However, there is a disconnect between what is known in academic research about coordination mechanisms and what mechanisms practitioners apply and consider useful. This research fills a gap in the literature by conducting an in-depth qualitative study of supply chain coordination mechanisms, primarily price, non-price, and flow coordination mechanisms. Results suggest that: (1) managers prefer flow coordination mechanisms over price and non-price coordination mechanisms; (2) supply chain orientation and learning orientation are important for the implementation of flow coordination mechanisms; and (3) technology, capital, and volume are not pre-requisites for flow coordination mechanisms.

Supply Chain Coordination and Cooperation Mechanisms: An Attribute‐Based Approach

SUMMARYCoordination within a supply chain is a strategic response to the problems that arise from inter‐organizational dependencies within the chain. A coordination mechanism is a set of methods used to manage interdependence between organizations. Given the increasing importance of high‐performance supply, and the advantages to be gained through supply chain coordination, the challenge to an organization is how to select the appropriate coordination mechanism to manage organizational interdependencies. This paper develops and illustrates an attribute‐based, systematic process for selecting coordination mechanisms in a supply chain.

Supply chain coordination in buyer centric B2B electronic markets

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.

The organizational perspective in supply chain management: an empirical analysis in Southern Italy

This paper addresses the supply chain (SC) co-ordination problem and emphasises the need to consider the involved organisational issues when dealing with it. In particular, the influence of the form of SC governance on the selection of SC co-ordination mechanisms is investigated. An empirical analysis on a sample of firms located in Southern Italy is carried out to study some theoretical assumptions. The latter are based on the available literature and suggest specific configurations of fit between the SC form of governance and the types of co-ordination mechanisms. In particular, we propose a conceptual model wherein the fit between the SC form of governance and the co-ordination mechanism is associated with a higher level of SC operational performance.

Software agents for knowledge management: coordination in multi-agent supply chains and auctions

A fundamental question that must be addressed in software agents for knowledge management is coordination in multi-agent systems. The coordination problem is ubiquitous in knowledge management, such as in manufacturing, supply chains, negotiation, and agent-mediated auctions. This paper summarizes several multi-agent systems for knowledge management that have been developed recently by the author and his collaborators to highlight new research directions for multi-agent knowledge management systems. In particular, the paper focuses on three areas of research: • Coordination mechanisms in agent-based supply chains. How do we design mechanisms for coordination, information and knowledge sharing in supply chains with self-interested agents? What would be a good coordination mechanism when we have a non-linear structure of the supply chain, such as a pyramid structure? What are the desirable properties for the optimal structure of efficient supply chains in terms of information and knowledge sharing? Will DNA computing be a viable tool for the analysis of agent-based supply chains? • Coordination mechanisms in agent-mediated auctions. How do we induce cooperation and coordination among various self-interested agents in agent-mediated auctions? What are the fundamental principles to promote agent cooperation behavior? How do we train agents to learn to cooperate rather than program agents to cooperate? What are the principles of trust building in agent systems? • Multi-agent enterprise knowledge management, performance impact and human aspects. Will people use agent-based systems? If so, how do we coordinate agent-based systems with human beings? What would be the impact of agent systems in knowledge management in an information economy?