Coordinating contracts have been extensively researched in supply chain management. In this retrospect, we systematically review the profit allocation, decision sequence, and compliance aspects of these contracts. In addition to the existing concepts in the literature, we propose the notion of...

We explore buyback contracts in a supplier-retailer supply chain where the retailer faces a price-dependent downward-sloping demand curve subject to uncertainty. We formulate the problem as a supplier-led Stackelberg game and derive explicitly the equilibrium contract parameters along with the...

This paper proposes a new methodology to solve partially observed inventory problems. Generally, these problems have infinite dimensional states that are conditional distribution of the inventory level. Our methodology involves linearizing the state transitions via unnormalized probabilities. It...

The speed with which an organization takes action against unplanned failure and scrapping of its capital equipment is used as a measure of organizational nimbleness. Operational decisions at the plant level are studied in the setting of the optimal control model of Kamien and Schwarz for...

We consider a financially constrained supply chain in which a supplier (leader) sells products to a retailer (follower) who has no access to bank financing due to her low credit rating. However, the supplier can borrow from a bank and offer trade credit to the retailer to alleviate her financial...

We study a closed-loop supply chain in which used products can be collected by a manufacturer, a retailer, or a third-party for the purpose of recycling. Since the collection process can be noisy, the system dynamic is modeled by a stochastic differential equation. We formulate stochastic...

We consider a stochastic multi-product inventory model with a ware-housing constraint with the objective of minimizing the expected long-run average cost. Using the vanishing discount approach, a dynamic programming equation and the corresponding verification result are established. The...

This paper describes a modelling methodology for multivariate stochastic processes. The concept of multiple causality is discussed and a procedure to detect multiple causality is suggested. The data of a major Canadian supermarket is analyzed and a multivariate autoregressive model for this...

The process of delivering goods and services better, faster and cheaper sounds simple but can sometimes be unpredictable and lead to shortages or surpluses. Over the past two decades, the supply chain journey has evolved through a number of distinct phases along with a shift in power from...

A critical assumption in the vast literature on inventory management has been that the current level of inventory is known to the decision maker. Some of the most celebrated results such as the optimality of base-stock policies have been obtained under this assumption. Yet it is often the case...