Synchronizing pricing and replenishment to serve forward-looking customers

We incorporate strategic customer waiting behavior in the classical economic order quantity (EOQ) setting. The seller determines not only the timing and quantities of the inventory replenishment, but also the selling prices over time. While similar ideas of market segmentation and intertemporal price discrimination can be carried over from the travel industries to other industries, inventory replenishment considerations common to retail outlets and supermarkets introduce additional features to the optimal pricing scheme. Specifically, our study provides concrete managerial recommendations that are against the conventional wisdom on “everyday low price” (EDLP) versus “high-low pricing” (Hi-Lo). We show that in the presence of inventory costs and strategic customers, Hi-Lo instead of EDLP is optimal when customers have homogeneous valuations. This result suggests that because of strategic customer behavior, the seller obtains a new source of flexibility—the ability to induce customers to wait—which always leads to a strictly positive increase of the seller's profit. Moreover, the optimal inventory policy may feature a dry period with zero inventory, but this period does not necessarily result in a loss of sales as customers strategically wait for the upcoming promotion. Furthermore, we derive the solution approach for the optimal policy under heterogeneous customer valuation setting. Under the optimal policy, the replenishments and price promotions are synchronized, and the seller adopts high selling prices when the inventory level is low and plans a discontinuous price discount at the replenishment point when inventory is the highest.     

参照化流形空间融合学习的敏感特征提取与异常检测方法

针对遥测振动信号冲击强、响应周期短、共振频带宽和小样本等特点导致异类模式识别率低的问题,提出基于参照化流形空间融合学习的敏感特征提取与异常检测方法。采用多尺度分析方法将信号正交无遗漏地分解到各尺度带中,提取多尺度特征构造高维特征集;以相同的正常信号样本结合相同类型的异常样本建立专属参照化模型单元,采用线性流形学习获取各参照化模型单元多尺度流形特征差异,增强异常特征的敏感性。融合各参照化模型单元的投影矩阵对原始特征集进行升维再学习,获取低维多尺度敏感流形特征;输入到分类器实现对未知样本状态辨识。实测信号处理结果验证了算法的有效性。     

大型复合材料空间刚架缩比模型设计方法

缩比模型试验是获取大型复合材料空间刚架力学特性或响应的一种有效途径,其中一项重要内容是缩比模型设计。以大型复合材料空间刚架为研究对象,阐述已有传统方法的局限性;基于离散相似提出结合有限元方法的方程分析法,利用该方法推导大型复合材料空间刚架静力学响应和动特性的相似关系;利用所提方法设计某复合材料龙骨的1/5缩比模型,并通过试验进行验证。验证结果表明,所提方法和推导的相似关系能够用于指导大型复合材料空间刚架的缩比模型试验。     

Equilibrium customer strategies and social–profit maximization in the single‐server constant retrial queue

We consider the single‐server constant retrial queue with a Poisson arrival process and exponential service and retrial times. This system has not waiting space, so the customers that find the server busy are forced to abandon the system, but they can leave their contact details. Hence, after a service completion, the server seeks for a customer among those that have unsuccessfully applied for service but left their contact details, at a constant retrial rate. We assume that the arriving customers that find the server busy decide whether to leave their contact details or to balk based on a natural reward‐cost structure, which incorporates their desire for service as well as their unwillingness to wait. We examine the customers' behavior, and we identify the Nash equilibrium joining strategies. We also study the corresponding social and profit maximization problems. We consider separately the observable case where the customers get informed about the number of customers waiting for service and the unobservable case where they do not receive this information. Several extensions of the model are also discussed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2011     

Some implications of pricing bundles

In this article, we consider a problem in which two suppliers can sell their respective products both individually and together as a bundle, and study the impact of bundle pricing. Four pricing models (centralized, decentralized, coop–comp, and comp–coop) are analyzed with regard to the competition formats and sequences. As one would expect, the firms are always better off when pricing decisions are centralized. However, rather surprisingly, we find that firms may be worse off if the bundle prices are set in a cooperative way; we provide analytical characterization of those instances. Numerical studies show that these insights also hold for some nonlinear demand. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2013     

Impact of transfer pricing methods for tax purposes on supply chain performance under demand uncertainty

Transfer pricing refers to the pricing of an intermediate product or service within a firm. This product or service is transferred between two divisions of the firm. Thus, transfer pricing is closely related to the allocation of profits in a supply chain. Motivated by the significant impact of transfer pricing methods for tax purposes on operational decisions and the corresponding profits of a supply chain, in this article, we study a decentralized supply chain of a multinational firm consisting of two divisions: a manufacturing division and a retail division. These two divisions are located in different countries under demand uncertainty. The retail division orders an intermediate product from the upstream manufacturing division and sets the retail price under random customer demand. The manufacturing division accepts or rejects the retail division's order. We specifically consider two commonly used transfer pricing methods for tax purposes: the cost‐plus method and the resale‐price method. We compare the supply chain profits under these two methods. Based on the newsvendor framework, our analysis shows that the cost‐plus method tends to allocate a higher percentage of profit to the retail division, whereas the resale‐price method tends to achieve a higher firm‐wide profit. However, as the variability of demand increases, our numerical study suggests that the firm‐wide and divisional profits tend to be higher under the cost‐plus method than they are under the resale‐price method. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2013     

MIMO多径衰落信道下的多载波混沌键控混沌通信

为提高差分混沌键控的传输效率及其在衰落信道下的传输性能,提出了多载波混沌键控及类差分混沌键控检测方法,发射端每隔M个OFDM符号间隔插入由混沌参考信号构成的"导频",在此间隔内其他M-1个OFDM符号即以此混沌参考信号生成的混沌键控信号,接收端提取"导频"并将之与其他OFDM符号进行相关积分,恢复出M-1比特信息。进一步给出了MIMO多径衰落信道下的多载波混沌键控分集发射与接收方法,发射端采用不同混沌信号以获得一定的发射分集增益,接收端不需要任何信道先验信息,对各天线的相关积分输出进行等增益合并,可获得空间分集增益和频域分集增益。性能分析和计算机仿真表明,在"导频"插入间隔大于2的情况下,多载波混沌键控的功率效率大于差分混沌键控,且传输性能优于差分混沌键控。     

Dynamic pricing in a dual‐market environment

This article is concerned with the determination of pricing strategies for a firm that in each period of a finite horizon receives replenishment quantities of a single product which it sells in two markets, for example, a long‐distance market and an on‐site market. The key difference between the two markets is that the long‐distance market provides for a one period delay in demand fulfillment. In contrast, on‐site orders must be filled immediately as the customer is at the physical on‐site location. We model the demands in consecutive periods as independent random variables and their distributions depend on the item's price in accordance with two general stochastic demand functions: additive or multiplicative. The firm uses a single pool of inventory to fulfill demands from both markets. We investigate properties of the structure of the dynamic pricing strategy that maximizes the total expected discounted profit over the finite time horizon, under fixed or controlled replenishment conditions. Further, we provide conditions under which one market may be the preferred outlet to sale over the other. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 531–549, 2015     

一种统一的拓扑关系判断模型

拓扑关系是地理信息系统领域中一种非常重要的空间关系。当前已经提出了多种模型来对空间对象间的拓扑关系进行判断,但是这些模型都不能判断那些由点、线、多边形任意组合而成的异构几何集合对象间的拓扑关系。针对当前拓扑关系研究的不足,引入了混合几何的概念和正规化准则,基于此空间对象模型和维扩展9交集模型,提出了一个拓扑关系判断模型—集成型维扩展9交集模型(IDE 9IM),它不但能够判断单一的点、线、面以及同构几何集合对象间的拓扑关系,而且还能从复杂空间对象的总体和局部两个方面对异构几何集合对象间的拓扑关系进行判断,可以作为一个判断任意几何对象间拓扑关系的统一模型。     

Coordinated pricing and inventory control problems with capacity constraints and fixed ordering cost

This article addresses a single‐item, finite‐horizon, periodic‐review coordinated decision model on pricing and inventory control with capacity constraints and fixed ordering cost. Demands in different periods are random and independent of each other, and their distributions depend on the price in the current period. Each period's stochastic demand function is the additive demand model. Pricing and ordering decisions are made at the beginning of each period, and all shortages are backlogged. The objective is to find an optimal policy that maximizes the total expected discounted profit. We show that the profit‐to‐go function is strongly CK‐concave, and the optimal policy has an (s,S,P) ‐like structure. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2012