Mitali Sarkar

A distribution free newsvendor model with consignment policy and retailer’s royalty reduction

Reducing the system cost and achieving significant profit are the key factors for every successful business sector. A consignment contract under distribution-free approach may be a fruitful combination to achieve a profitable business. This model deals with a single-period newsvendor problem with a consignment policy. The consignment policy is an agreement between any two parties, named as the consignor and the consignee. Under Stackelberg approach, firms act as leader and follower. Both parties carry some parts of the holding cost instead of one. A new policy for paying the fixed fee to the consignee is introduced. This paper considers no specific probability distribution for customer’s demand except a known mean and standard deviation. An efficient approach is proposed to reduce the retailer’s cost and building a sustainable consignment contract. The solution of this model is obtained using distribution free approach. A comparison between the traditional supply chain policy and the consignment policy is established. The price-sensitivity on demand is analysed. Some numerical examples and graphical representations are given for both traditional and consignment policy. Result proves that consignment policy is dominating over the traditional policy and a significant reduction of retailer’s royalty is found.

Effects of Variable Production Rate and Time-Dependent Holding Cost for Complementary Products in Supply Chain Model

Recently, a major trend is going to redesign a production system by controlling or making variable the production rate within some fixed interval to maintain the optimal level. This strategy is more effective when the holding cost is time-dependent as it is interrelated with holding duration of products and rate of production. An effort is made to make a supply chain model (SCM) to show the joint effect of variable production rate and time-varying holding cost for specific type of complementary products, where those products are made by two different manufacturers and a common retailer makes them bundle and sells bundles to end customers. Demand of each product is specified by stochastic reservation prices with a known potential market size. Those players of the SCM are considered with unequal power. Stackelberg game approach is employed to obtain global optimum solution of the model. An illustrative numerical example, graphical representation, and managerial insights are given to illustrate the model. Results prove that variable production rate and time-dependent holding cost save more than existing literature.

Modelling for Service Solution of a Closed-Loop Supply Chain with the Presence of Third Party Logistics.

Service, the word itself is a big issue in the corporate world. One of the most important parts of the reputation of a company depends how much it can provide service to customers. It is very difficult to maintain especially when it is related to a closed-loop supply chain. Quality of products is also a main factor of business that is known to all. In this model, a closed-loop supply chain with multi-retailer, single-manufacturer and single- third-party collector (3PL) is considered where service and quality issues are maintained throughout the supply chain. The model is solved by a classical optimization method and obtains global solutions in closed and quasi-closed forms. Numerical experiments are done to illustrate the model clearly. Numerical results prove the reality of the model.

An integrated inventory model involving discrete setup cost reduction, variable safety factor, selling-price dependent demand, and investment

This paper develops a sustainable integrated inventory model for maximizing profit with a controllable lead time, discrete setup cost reduction, and consideration of environmental issues. Contrary to the available literature, this paper considers a discrete setup cost for the vendor, thus making the integrated model sustainable. The customer’s demand is assumed to be selling-price dependent to increase the number of sales, and the lead time demand follows a Poisson distribution. The integrated model is used to optimized the total shipment number, volume of shipments, safety factor, investments, selling-price, and probability of moving between the “in-control” to “out-of-control” states. An algorithm is developed to obtain the numerical results. Numerical examples and sensitivity analyses are given to illustrate the model.