A pre-pack is a collection of items used in retail distribution. By grouping multiple units of one or more stock keeping units (SKU), distribution and handling costs can be reduced; however, ordering flexibility at the retail outlet is limited. This paper studies an inventory system at a retail...

Ticket queues are prevalent in service industries. They enhance customer satisfaction by eliminating physical lines, but may compromise efficiency (i.e., service completion probability). Existing studies offer mixed results on the cause and magnitude of such inefficiency. These results, however,...

We study an order promising problem in a multiclass, available-to-promise (ATP) assembly system in the presence of pseudo orders. A pseudo order refers to a tentative customer order whose attributes, such as the likelihood of an actual order, order quantity, and confirmation timing, can change...

Queueing systems managed by ticket technology are widely used in service industries as well as government offices. Upon arriving at a ticket queue, each customer is issued a numbered ticket. The number currently being served is displayed. An arriving customer balks if the difference between his...

We study a strategic information management problem in the export-processing trade, where the buyer controls the raw material input and sales and the producer is responsible for production. The production is vulnerable to random yield risk. The producer can exert a costly effort to acquire the...

Real markets evolve over time. They often exhibit complex behaviors, such as auto-correlation, continuity, and non-stationarity. How do these behaviors affect channel contracting? We study the problem in a bilateral channel where the retailer has private information on evolving market...

Dual channel distribution benefits upstream manufacturers but may irritate downstream retailers. The channel conflict only seems to aggravate when retailers are put at information disadvantage. We show this need not be the case. (i) We demonstrate upstream private information can improve channel...

We examine the intertemporal and decentralization effects on managing disruption risks in a supply chain with lost sales and fixed transportation cost. The disruption risk is continuously monitored via collaborative forecasting based on advance supply signals --- such as financial health and...

We study a joint capacity leasing and demand acceptance problem in intermodal transportation. The model features multiple sources of evolving supply and demand, and endogenizes the interplay of three levers --- forecasting, leasing, and demand acceptance. We characterize the optimal policy, and...

We examine the critical role of advance supply signals - such as suppliers' financial health and production viability - in dynamic supply risk management. The firm operates an inventory system with multiple demand classes and multiple suppliers. The sales are discretionary and the suppliers are...