Single-vendor Multi-buyer Supply Chain Research Articles

Establishing relation between production rate and product quality in a single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain model

Establishing relation between production rate and product quality in a single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain model

Establishing relation between production rate and product quality in a single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain model

This paper develops a single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain model with variable production cost, imperfect quality of products and environmental factors. A unit production cost is considered as a function of the production rate. Costs that vary depending on the production rate of a company is variable production cost. Increase in production rate deteriorates the product quality, resulting in imperfect quality of products. High production rate also produces significant carbon emission in the environment. In order to reduce the environmental pollution, industries must invest an amount. The cost associated with the environmental impact of one's company's business operations is environmental cost. In order to obtain the global optimum solution, a classical optimisation technique is employed. An illustrative algorithm is established to obtain the numerical results. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the model. Numerical study proves the effects of variable production rate on the total cost of supply chain model.

Single-vendor multi-buyer integrated inventory system for multi-item

In this paper, a single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain system is considered in which several products. The demand of this supply chain for each product is a stochastic variable and it is assumed to follow a normal distribution. The lead time of receiving products from vendor to buyer is a variable which controllable by the adding extra cost. During the consumption period, the shortages are allowed and they are completely backlogged in the next replenishment. The production process is assumed to be imperfect, i.e., all the finished products need not consumable, so the buyer implements a screening process to separate the defective and non-defective items and the vendor pay warranty cost for each defective item to the buyer. We investigated the economic order quantity (EOQ), lead time and number of shipments such that total cost of the supply chain have been minimised. At last numerical illustration and sensitivity analysis are given.

Returnable containers management in a single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain with investment in reducing the loss fraction

With the advantages of reducing CO2 emissions and improving the sustainability of supply chain, returnable containers have been widely used in logistics processes. This paper considers a returnable containers supply chain that consists of a single vendor and multiple buyers. To minimize the total cost of the system and balance the containers flow, we assume that the buyers can invest in employee training to reduce the loss fraction of returnable containers. We build an inventory model for the system, design an iterative procedure using Mathematica to minimize the total cost and compare with the case that the buyers do not invest. The results show that the optimal cost of the case where the buyers invest is much lower than that of the case where the buyers do not invest. Moreover, the quantity of returnable containers the buyers receive and the replenishment frequency are both lower than the case that the buyers do not invest.

Single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain coordination with stochastic demand

This paper proposes a model of single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain coordination with stochastic demand in which the vendor's production cycle length and the buyers' ordering cycle lengths are synchronized. A mathematical model for the coordination policy considering possible stock-out and/or excessive stock is formulated, and a solution algorithm for the model is developed. The numerical results show that, under stochastic situation, our coordination model performs better than two other policies, the decentralized decision making model and the common cycle coordination model. Considering the difficulty of estimating shortage cost, trade-off curves are plotted along a range of service levels to further compare the models and reinforce our results.

Effects of variable production rate on quality of products in a single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain management

A supply chain with multiple buyers leads to a hike in demand and for satisfying them, a high standard production manufacturing system is required. A predetermined production rate in a supply chain model with economic production lot size is quite inappropriate for this type of situation as production rate can be changed in some cases to fulfill demand of customers. Rate of production has an impact in maintaining process quality. Manufacturing quality deteriorates with an increasing rate of production. In this context, this paper develops a single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain model with variable production rate and imperfect quality of products. The unit production cost is considered as a function of the production rate. Three different production functions are established to relate process quality and production rate. Due to huge demand by multi-buyer, the lead time demand is considered as random variable and it follows a normal distribution. The objective of this study is to analyze how the flexibility of the production rate affects the product quality as well as entire supply chain cost under a single-setup multiple-delivery policy. A classical optimization technique is employed to obtain the global optimum solution. An illustrative algorithm is established to obtain the numerical results. Numerical examples and graphical interpretations, and sensitivity analysis are given to illustrate the model. Numerical study proves that the variable production rate effects a lot on the total cost of supply chain model.

Single-vendor multi-buyer game theoretic model under multi-factor dependent demand

Market demand for any single-type of products depends upon multi-factors. Demand is increasing day-by-day due to the globalisation of products, customer's choice and finally, priorities are now changing according to these factors. In this scenario this paper deals with a single-vendor multiple-buyer supply chain model with imperfect production dependent-demand. This model has been solved by using decentralised and centralised policy and Stackelberg game approach is used to find optimum profit individually in decentralised case. Total profit has been maximised when multi-factor dependent demand is consideredin a single-vendor multi-buyer sustainable supply chain model. Numerical examples and managerial insights are delivered to illustrate the model numerically.

Single-vendor multi-buyer vendor managed inventory with discrete demand and stockout

This paper deals with the operational issues of a two-echelon single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain model under vendor managed inventory (VMI) mode of operation. Considering multiple buyers and assuming unsatisfied demands to be backordered at the buyers are major extensions in this paper. The vendor replenishes a single product to the buyers. The operational parameters of buyers are replenishment frequency, ordering cycle time, replenishment quantity and maximum number of authorised stockout while for the vendor, we consider ordering cycle time and order quantity as the operational parameters. Considering replenishment frequency of each buyer as the major decision variable of the model, the total inventory system cost is stated in terms of the replenishment frequency and other operational parameters are obtained as given equations. Since the objective function of the given model is nonlinear involving several integer variables, two meta-heuristic-based algorithms [i.e., genetic algorithm (GA) and simulated annealing (SA)] are utilised in order to solve the problem; the results indicate that the first algorithm gives better solutions compared with the second.

Synchronisation of order cycles of multiple buyers in a supply chain with trade credit policy

In this paper, we propose a coordinated single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain model by synchronising ordering and production cycles with trade credit option. The synchronisation is achieved by scheduling the ordering cycle of buyers and coordinating them with the vendor's production cycle. Such a policy results in lower total cost of the system very often at the expense of increased costs of the buyers. Hence, in order to compensate the increased cost of the buyers, a credit option scheme is proposed which can guarantee that the costs of all the buyers and the vendor, as a result of coordination, will be reduced when compared with independent optimisation. A profit-sharing scheme is also developed. A mathematical model is developed and an effective-and-efficient heuristics is proposed for our proposed coordination model. Numerical results are provided with results showing that the Pareto improvements can be achieved via the proposed trade credit incentive scheme. Such results are irrespective of the capital cost structure of the vendor and buyers in the supply chain.

An Integrated Production and Inventory Model in a Single-Vendor Multi-Buyer Supply Chain

An Integrated Production and Inventory Model in a Single-Vendor Multi-Buyer Supply Chain

Generalized single-vendor multi-buyer integrated inventory supply chain models with a better synchronization

Researchers have synchronized both the single-vendor single-buyer and the single-vendor multi-buyer integrated inventory supply chains by transferring the lot either only with equal-sized or only with unequal-sized sub-lot (batches). However, synchronization by transferring the lot with unequal and/or equal-sized batches (combination of unequal and equal sized batches along with the previous two cases), though available in the former case, the latter one lacks it. Accumulating the inventory in each of the vendor and the buyers, here we develop a generalized single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain model individually by extending the idea of such synchronization, and present logical development of their minimal cost solution techniques. Thereafter, we highlight theoretically the uniqueness of the present techniques by showing the best available methods as their special cases. Special cases are validated with the solutions of some numerical problems. Then their comparative studies with recently developed techniques on two numerical problems are carried out to show significant cost reductions.

A co-ordination model combining incentive scheme and co-ordination policy for a single-vendor–multi-buyer supply chain

Abstract Incentive scheme and co-ordination policy are substantial components for the co-ordination of a decentralized supply chain system, but there is little work combining the two components as a single decision model ( Li and Wang, 2007 ). This paper proposes a model which incorporates both incentive and co-ordination issues into a single co-ordination model for a single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain. In the proposed model, the co-ordination is achieved by synchronizing ordering and production cycles while price discount, which is based on the buyers’ order intervals, is used as the incentive to motivate buyers to participate in the co-ordination. While the vendor is benefited from the co-ordination by synchronized cycles, the proposed price discount scheme can guarantee that a buyer’s total relevant cost of co-ordination will be reduced when compared with independent optimization. More importantly, the proposed price discount scheme does not require any cost information from the buyers.

A delayed payment method in co-ordinating a single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain

In this paper, we consider a co-ordinated single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain model by synchronizing ordering and production cycles with delayed payments that are based on the buyers’ order intervals. It can be shown that the synchronized cycles policy works better, in terms of total system costs, than independent optimization. While the vendor is benefited from the co-ordination by synchronized cycles, this research proposes a co-ordination mechanism that incorporates a delayed payment method which can guarantee that a buyer’s total relevant cost of co-ordination will not be increased when compared with independent optimization. Most importantly, the vendor does not require any cost information from the buyers when applying this co-ordination mechanism.

Single-vendor multi-buyer discount pricing model: an evolutionary computation-based approach

In this paper, a single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain coordination problem through optimal discount pricing policy has been studied. The seller offers multiple pricing schedules to the buyers and each buyer selects a schedule that maximises the corresponding individual profit. The model considers the reaction of each buyer and ensures that the motivation of each buyer to select local optima can also lead to global optima with maximum channel profits. The results show that channel profit increases with the increase in the number of pricing schedules. An evolutionary computation-based technique has been proposed to solve the model. The model can find significant practical applicability towards solving industrial problems.

Coordination in a single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain by synchronizing delivery and production cycles

This paper proposes a coordinated single-vendor multi-buyer supply chain model by synchronizing delivery and production cycles. The synchronization is achieved by scheduling the actual delivery days of the buyers and coordinating them with the vendor’s production cycle whilst allowing the buyers to choose their own lot sizes and order cycles. A mathematical model for our proposed coordination is developed and analyzed. The results of our three numerical examples show that the synchronized cycles policy works better than independent optimization as well as restricting buyers to adopt a common order cycle.