Competing with channel partners: Supply chain conflict when retailers introduce store brands

Private‐label products are of increasing importance in many retail categories. While national‐brand products are designed by the manufacturer and sold by the retailer, the positioning of store‐brand products is under the complete control of the retailer. We consider a scenario where products differ on a performance quality dimension and we analyze how retailer–manufacturer interactions in product positioning are affected by the introduction of a private‐label product. Specifically, we consider a national‐brand manufacturer who determines the quality of its product as well the product's wholesale price charged to the retailer. Given the national‐brand quality and wholesale price, the retailer then decides the quality level of its store brand and sets the retail prices for both products. We find that a manufacturer can derive substantial benefits from considering a retailer's store‐brand introduction when determining the national brand's quality and wholesale price. If the retailer has a significant cost disadvantage in producing high‐quality products, the manufacturer does not need to adjust the quality of the national‐brand product, but he should offer a wholesale price discount to ensure its distribution through the retailer. If the retailer is competitive in providing products of high‐quality, the manufacturer should reduce this wholesale price discount and increase the national‐brand quality to mitigate competition. Interestingly, we find the retailer has incentive to announce a store‐brand introduction to induce the manufacturer's consideration of these plans in determining the national‐brand product quality and wholesale price. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2010     

The strategic effects of a merger upon supplier interactions

We consider how a merger between two naturally differentiated dealers affects their interactions with a common supplier and identify conditions under which the merger can increase or decrease the combined net worth of the two firms. Among other things, we find that the attractiveness of merging depends upon the extent to which end demand can be stimulated by either an upstream supplier or the dealers. Specifically, the greater the supplier's ability to invest in stimulating end demand, the more likely it is that the naturally differentiated firms will be better off operating independently than merging. On the other hand, if the greatest opportunities for stimulating demand are through the service that is provided by the dealers, then merging their operations will be more attractive. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007     

Complexity and workload considerations in product mix decisions under the theory of constraints

The literature on the product mix decision (or master production scheduling) under the Theory of Constraints (TOC), which was developed in the past two decades, has addressed this problem as a static operational decision. Consequently, the developed solution techniques do not consider the system's dynamism and the associated challenges arising from the complexity of operations during the implementation of master production schedules. This paper aims to address this gap by developing a new heuristic approach for master production scheduling under the TOC philosophy that considers the main operational factors that influence actual throughput after implementation of the detailed schedule. We examine the validity of the proposed heuristic by comparison to Integer Linear Programming and two heuristics in a wide range of scenarios using simulation modelling. Statistical analyses indicate that the new algorithm leads to significantly enhanced performance during implementation for problems with setup times. The findings show that the bottleneck identification approach in current methods in the TOC literature is not effective and accurate for complex operations in real‐world job shop systems. This study contributes to the literature on master production scheduling and product mix decisions by enhancing the likelihood of achieving anticipated throughput during the implementation of the detailed schedule. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 357–369, 2015     

虚拟PDM环境下基于特征增长的协同设计

协同设计目前已经成为解决复杂产品设计问题的关键技术之一.在分析了现有协同设计问题的基础上,提出通过构建虚拟PDM(VPDM,Virtual PDM),应用交换特征增长数据的方法,来解决企业间异构PDM、CAD应用系统的协同设计问题.给出了虚拟PDM的定义,并介绍了基于虚拟PDM进行协同设计的基本原理.建立了基于虚拟PD...     

Supplier certification and quality investment in supply chains

Global sourcing has made quality management a more challenging task, and supplier certification has emerged as a solution to overcome suppliers' informational advantage about their product quality. This article analyzes the impact of certification standards on the supplier's investment in quality, when a buyer outsources the production process. Based on our results, deterministic certification may lead to under‐investment in quality improvement technology for efficient suppliers, thereby leading to potential supply chain inefficiency. The introduction of noisy certification may alleviate this under‐investment problem, when the cost of information asymmetry is high. While allowing noisy certification always empowers the buyer to offer a menu to screen among heterogeneous suppliers, the buyer may optimally choose only a limited number of certification standards. Our analysis provides a clear‐cut prediction of the types of certifiers the buyer should use for heterogeneous suppliers, and we identify the conditions under which the supplier benefits from noisy certification. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2013     

The future of the defence firm: the case of the UK aerospace industry

The focus of this paper is the future of the defence firm within the context of the UK aerospace industry and its supply chain. The analysis considers aerospace markets and the aerospace industry in the UK before assessing the future of the defence/aerospace firm as a case study. The paper concludes that its future in terms of the strategic and important aerospace industry is uncertain. The corporate governance of the defence firm will have to change to reflect the hollowing‐out of the firm as the industry experiences significantly less vertical integration. The emphasis of the future defence/aerospace firm will be on ‘buy’ and not necessarily ‘make’. There will also be fewer independent defence aerospace firms as horizontal integration will occur across air, land and sea platforms as well as civil and defence aerospace firms. Indeed, conglomerate integration may even occur with cost pressures and market forces ensuring that merger activity goes beyond defence and aerospace into wider manufacturing industries and, in some cases, service industries in global markets.     

复杂零件产品虚拟开发技术研究

本文针对复杂零件产品制造精度要求高,工艺性差,残次品率高,生产周期长等特点,在探讨虚拟产品开发技术及其原型系统的基础上,提出了一种复杂零件产品开发的新模式：即在虚拟状态下对产品进行构思、设计、分析、仿真、装配、测试、性能及经济性评估、快速原型及产品数据管理等。     

虚拟技术在航天产品研制中的应用前景

在航天产品研制过程中采用虚拟制造技术和虚拟测试技术,必将改变传统航天产品研制与测试的模式和局限性。在实际产品投料生产之前,应用虚拟制造技术和虚拟测试技术在计算机上进行虚拟加工、虚拟装配、虚拟测试等生产过程的仿真,向上可以验证产品设计的正确性与合理性,从而可以使设计师及早发现设计中存在的缺陷,及时更正;向下可以指导生产过程,确定正确的工艺流程和装配流程,确定某些工艺参数,使生产过程更加合理,从而大大减少人力资源和物力资源的浪费,缩短研制周期,降低研制费用,提高产品质量。     

装甲装备改进改型的发展及应用

对现役装甲装备的改进改型作了较全面的分析,指出了装备改进的特点、遵循的设计原则及一般通用性作法,并明确了实施装备改进的条件,剖析了装甲装备改进改型的具体实例.     

航天软件的配置管理

航天软件一般是航天系统中的一个要害软件.要开发一个合格的航天软件,必须严格遵循软件的配置管理.首先论述了航天软件的基本要求,在此基础上较详细介绍了软件配置管理的方法、步骤和要求.