A common strategy to increase sales and profit is to combine different types of products into bundles and sell at a discounted price. In this study, we consider the case where a wholesaler offers to sell two types of products through discount bundles. Each of the two types of products is purchased from a producer in lots that contain a percentage of imperfect quality items, which is a random variable having a known probability density function. Items received from the producer are inspected for imperfect quality using a 100% screening process. The perfect quality items are used to make the discount bundles, while the imperfect quality items are sold at a discounted price at the end of the screening period. Items of perfect quality of one type that are not bundled are kept in stock to be used in the next inventory cycle. A mathematical model is developed to determine the total profit function. A closed-form formula for the wholesaler's optimal order quantity of each type of product is determined by maximizing the profit function. The optimal solution is given in terms of the expected values of functions involving the two random variables representing the percentages of perfect quality items. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the model, and simulation is used to calculate the optimal solution.
The basic objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of supply chain integration on business performance and the challenges associated with supply chain integration. This paper selects different research papers and articles to present the empirical evidence regarding supply chain integration, its impact on business performance and the challenges associated with it.A sample of 21 research papers was selected in the analysis/findings section and discussion section to discuss the impact of supply chain integration on business performance and the challenges associated with the integration of supply chain among different channel partners. The time period of 1995-2011 was selected and only those journal articles/research papers were selected that were published within this period.Different research papers provided an empirical proof that supply chain integration led to better business performance but few of them discussed challenges associated with it. There was only one paper of Awad & Nassar (2010b) that prominently addressed those challenges. This identified a research gap to be filled and weakened the argument that supply chain leaded to better business performance because how it could be argued when the business challenges associated with supply chain integration were not analyzed and assessed efficiently in the previous research. The author also researched and found papers that held an opposite view regarding supply chain integration. Therefore, more empirical research was proposed and advised to be conducted in this area and it was concluded that further research was crucial to understand the importance of supply chain integration, its impact on business performance and its challenges.As for limitations, it was a secondary research that was one of the main research limitations. Secondly, more research papers and journal articles could be researched or reviewed. Therefore, the findings of this paper cannot be widely generalized.The findings of this research paper could encourage researchers and managers to conduct more research for addressing impact of supply chain integration on business performance and its challenges.
The Six Sigma model provides various kinds of sustainability to companies in terms of quality enhancement, zero defect level, market share enhancement, optimal production level and financial returns. Multinational companies are more orientated toward implementation of Six Sigma than small scale locally held companies. Numerous larger companies have so far implemented Six Sigma including 3M, Caterpillar, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Amazon.com, DHL, SGL group, Dell, Ford Motor Company, DuPont, McGraw Hill Companies and HSBC group. Implementation of Six Sigma requires considerable cost and effort in terms of human resource training and reformulation of business processes. This study is an attempt to find what kind of sustainability motivates multinational companies to invest in Six Sigma. Sustainability identified includes social sustainability, environmental sustainability, and economic sustainability. With the aid of interviews, a constant comparison study is conducted in order to find the most prevalent type of sustainability offered by Six Sigma. A sample is drawn from multinational companies which have already implemented Six Sigma in their operations. The findings suggest that multinational companies implement Six Sigma in order to attain economic sustainability through various means such as market share, customer base, and social sustainability.
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