Title: A flexible contract strategy in a supply chain with an inflexible production mode

Authors: Qunzhi Wang, Ou Tang, De-bi Tsao

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan. ' Department of Production Economics, Linkoping Institute of Technology, SE 581 83 Linkoping, Sweden. ' Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan

Abstract: This paper presents a flexible supply contract with call options model for an inflexible supply chain, where the supplier only has an opportunity to produce one batch due to a long lead-time limitation. In such systems, there are eventually two decision points. At the beginning of the planning horizon, the supplier offers a wholesale price, and possibly also option purchasing and exercising prices. In addition to a firm initial order, the buyer can purchase options to adjust order quantity later. The supplier then determines the production volume. At the second decision point, with updated forecast, the buyer finalises the order quantity by exercising options. We formulate both the buyer|s and the supplier|s profit functions. Furthermore, we develop explicit expressions to determine the buyer|s optimal decisions, and calculate the supplier|s optimal decisions numerically. In numerical study, we illustrate that such a flexible contract strategy improves both the buyer|s and supplier|s profits.

Keywords: forecast update; quantity flexibility; real options; supply chain management; SCM; supply contract; flexible contract strategy; inflexible supply chain; call options model; profit functions; optimal decisions; supply chain performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOR.2006.009299

International Journal of Operational Research, 2006 Vol.1 No.3, pp.228 - 248

Published online: 15 Mar 2006 *

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