When demand is uncertain, manufacturers and retailers often have private information on future demand, and such information asymmetry impacts strategic interaction in distribution channels. In this paper, we investigate a channel consisting of a manufacturer and a downstream retailer facing a product market characterized by short product life, uncertain demand, and price rigidity. Assuming the firms have asymmetric information about the demand volatility, we examine the potential benefits of sharing information and contracts that facilitate such cooperation. We conclude that under a wholesale price regime, information sharing might not improve channel profits when the retailer underestimates the demand volatility but the manufacturer does not. Although information sharing is always beneficial under a two-part tariff regime, it is in general not sufficient to achieve sharing, and additional contractual arrangements are necessary. The contract types we consider to facilitate sharing are profit sharing and buyback contracts.
Assume that m periods with stochastic demand remain until the next replenishment arrives at a central warehouse. How should the available inventory be allocated among N retailers? This paper presents a new policy and a new lower bound for the expected cost of this problem. The lower bound becomes tight as N → ∞ . The infinite horizon problem then decomposes into N independent m-period problems with optimal retailer ship-up-to levels that decrease over the m periods, and the warehouse is optimally replenished by an order-up-to level that renders zero (local) warehouse safety stock at the end of each replenishment cycle. Based on the lower bound solution, we suggest a heuristic for finite N. In a numerical study it outperforms the heuristic by Jackson [Jackson, P. L. 1988. Stock allocation in a two-echelon distribution system or what to do until your ship comes in. Management Sci. 34(7) 880–895], and the new lower bound improves on Clark and Scarf's [Clark, A. J., H. Scarf. 1960. Optimal policies for a multi-echelon inventory problem. Management Sci. 6(4) 475–490] bound when N is not too small. Moreover, the warehouse zero-safety-stock heuristic is comparable to Clark and Scarf's warehouse policy for lead times that are not too long. The suggested approach is quite general and may be applied to other logistical problems. In the present application it retains some of the risk-pooling benefits of holding central warehouse stock.
This article analyses a divergent supply chain consisting of a central warehouse and N nonidentical retailers. The focus is on joint evaluation of inventory replenishment and shipment consolidation effects. A time-based dispatching and shipment consolidation policy is used at the warehouse in conjunction with real-time point-of-sale data and centralized inventory information. This represents a common situation, for example, in various types of vendor managed inventory systems. The main contribution is the derivation of an exact recursive procedure for determining the expected inventory holding and backorder costs for the system, under the assumption of Poisson demand. Two heuristics for determining near optimal shipment intervals are also presented. The results are applicable both for single-item and multiitem systems.
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