published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Globalization of business results in significant changes and severe competition. These macro forces lead to international integration and improved performance standards. Products with contracting life cycles demand the whole supply chain to react effectively with flexibility. Together with the rapid development of information technology and recent moves in e-business, all these macro factors have forced business enterprises to restructure their supply chains. An important dimension of supply chain restructuring is to improve coordination amongst supply chain members to optimize overall performance. In many industries, we observe increasing activities in supply chain coordination through new coordination mechanisms and/or information sharing. At the same time, because incentives are not aligned, we also observe reluctance to adopt these new initiatives. / The main analytical results of this thesis are: (1) These new coordination mechanisms affect each supply chain member's payoff. However, as long as the stock level that upstream desires is higher than the one downstream desires, we find that upstream and downstream can always find a risk-sharing rule such that adoption of these new coordination mechanisms, along with the risk-sharing rule, will always lead to higher expected payoffs for both of the supply chain members. (2) Under those new coordination mechanisms, we find that, in general, if downstream receives a market demand signal that is greater than a cut off value, he will reveal it to upstream voluntarily; otherwise, he will not reveal. The cut off value is a function of downstream's information revealing cost, upstream's critical fractile and its prior belief of the demand signal. (3) We get similar results for the problem of capacity choice under traditional supply chain. But in this problem, whether or not downstream will share demand information to the upstream voluntarily is also dependent on downstream's critical fractile. / The main objective of this thesis is to model problems in supply chain regarding some new coordination mechanisms and information sharing to better understand the related incentive issues. We hope to identify some managerial insights to enhance better coordination within a supply chain. The main issues being addressed in this thesis are the followings: (1) There are new coordination mechanisms transferring the right to make stock level decision and the responsibility to keep stock to upstream. How will these changes influence incentives in the supply chain? Are there any arrangements such that all parties in a supply chain will be better off by adopting these new coordination mechanisms? (2) Transferring the responsibility to carry inventory from downstream to upstream often also requires information sharing but such information sharing may not be enforced by contract. In that case; will the downstream be willing to share information with the upstream voluntarily? (3) Demand information asymmetry also exists in traditional supply chain and upstream's capacity choice is heavily dependent on the demand information it obtained from downstream. What are the conditions for the downstream to voluntarily reveal the private information about demand? Knowing the answers to these questions help us to better understand incentive issues to enhance better supply chain coordination. / Chu Wai-hung Julius. / "Jun 2002." / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 63-10, Section: A, page: 3630. / Supervisor: Ching Chyi Lee. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-123). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

published_or_final_version / Mathematics / Master / Master of Philosophy

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Zhu Jing. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 54-58). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- Supply Chain Contracts --- p.6 / Chapter 2.2 --- Risk Aversion --- p.10 / Chapter 3 --- Rebate Scheme in a Risk-Neutral Supply Chain --- p.12 / Chapter 3.1 --- Market Demand is Perfectly Correlated with Temperature --- p.13 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- The Integrated Supply Chain: the Benchmark --- p.13 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- The Decentralized Supply Chain --- p.14 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- Supply Chain Coordination with a Rebate --- p.15 / Chapter 3.2 --- Market Demand is Partially Correlated with Temperature --- p.18 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Additive Random Variable --- p.18 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Multiplicative Random Variable --- p.21 / Chapter 3.3 --- Discussion and Conclusion --- p.22 / Chapter 4 --- Rebate Scheme in a Risk-Averse Supply Chain --- p.24 / Chapter 4.1 --- Case of Perfectly Correlated Demand --- p.26 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Without a Shortage Cost --- p.26 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Shortage Cost s > 0 --- p.32 / Chapter 4.2 --- Case of Demand with an Additive Random Variable --- p.33 / Chapter 4.3 --- Discussion and Conclusion --- p.37 / Chapter 5 --- Numerical Analysis --- p.38 / Chapter 5.1 --- Risk-Neutral Supply Chain --- p.39 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Perfectly Correlated Demand Model --- p.39 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Partially Correlated Demand Model --- p.39 / Chapter 5.2 --- Risk-Averse Supply Chain --- p.45 / Chapter 5.3 --- Brief Summary --- p.47 / Chapter 6 --- Conclusion --- p.49 / Chapter A --- Matlab Source Code --- p.51 / Bibliography --- p.54

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 123-132). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Keywords. Competitive strategy, Supply chain strategy, Leanness, Agility, Environmental uncertainty, Moderator, Cumulative model. / Supply chain management has become one of the most popular approaches to enhance the global competitiveness of business corporations today. Thus, it has received more and more attention from practitioners and the academia. However, how to effectively manage the flow of materials from supply sources to the ultimate customer represents a major challenge for today's managers. From the viewpoint of business competition, Porter (1980) identified three general types of strategies, i.e., overall cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. This research tries to make an extension of this typology from an angle of supply chain management. Two general supply chain strategies including leanness and agility are identified in this study. / This research is composed of three studies. Study 1 makes a contribution to investigate the moderating effect of environmental uncertainty on the relationship between competitive strategy and supply chain strategy, and between supply chain strategy and financial performance. The findings prove that environmental uncertainty works as a homologizer in the proposed framework. Using multiple group structural equation analysis, the different strengths of the impact of competitive strategy on supply chain strategy and that of supply chain strategy on financial performance are identified. Study 2 tests the validity of the matrix proposed by Fisher (1997) and Christopher (2000) in which the relationship between product characteristics and supply chain structure is proposed. The findings show that the functional product needs a higher level of the use of the lean supply chain, while innovative products need a higher level of the use of the agile or leagile supply chain. The regression results demonstrate that the match between product characteristics and supply chain strategy indeed lead to higher performance. Finally, study 3 identifies several supply chain management practices through a thorough literature review of about 300 academic papers and classifies them into eight bundles. Based on Ferdows and De Meyer (1990)'s cumulative model, we propose that lean manufacturers should focus on such practices that help them build lean capabilities, and agile manufacturers need to build lean capabilities first before pursuing agility. / Qi Yinan. / "May 2006." / Adviser: Xiande Zhao. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-02, Section: A, page: 0644. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 175-187). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

Supplier selection is an important problem in supply chain management (SCM), and has attracted the attention of many researchers. Most previous research on supplier selection is based on the assumption that a single product is required. For the few supplier selection models for multiple products, they handled the problem on a product-by-product manner. In such cases, the synergy effect between products which could impact the choice of cooperative suppliers is not taken into account. However, it is practical for the purchasing company to procure multiple products simultaneously and benefit from the synergy effect between products. It is necessary to incorporate the synergy effect between products in multi-product supplier selection. This thesis presents a multi-product supplier selection model incorporating the synergy effect between products. The model is composed of three sub-models, i.e., the synergy determination sub-model, the supplier pre-selection sub-model and the negotiation-based final selection sub- model. As the agent-based technology is a natural tool for modeling distributed systems, the proposed multi-product supplier selection model is realized as a multi-agent system (MAS) with agents representing the relevant parties and functions of the proposed model. Agents of the MAS are able to interact with each other through the respective agent interaction protocols defined specifically for the three sub-models. The synergy determination sub-model is to determine the synergy effect between products. The term complementarity is used to represent the synergy effect between products. The product complementarity measure criteria are formulated based on the activities of automobile manufacturers. Complementarity measure methods are then proposed. The product bundle determination algorithm is presented to generate preferred product bundles. The interaction of agents involving in the sub-model is governed by the synergy determination protocol. The supplier pre-selection sub-model is to shortlist the qualified and competitive suppliers for multiple products. The pre-selection criteria catering for the multi-product environment are formulated. Both the general characteristics and performances of suppliers, and the capabilities supporting multi-product transactions are included in the pre-selection criteria. The TOPSIS-based supplier pre-selection algorithm is established to evaluate suppliers on these criteria. The interaction of agents involving in the sub-model is governed by the pre-selection protocol. The negotiation-based final selection sub-model is to select the cooperative suppliers for multiple products. In order to cater for the multi-product environment, multiple bids are allowed in the negotiation model. The corresponding bid utility function and negotiation strategies are presented. The B&B-based winner determination algorithm is presented to determine the cooperative suppliers. The hybrid protocol of combinatorial procurement auction and multi-bilateral bargaining is established to govern the interaction of agents in the sub-model. A case study has been executed to demonstrate the feasibility, effectiveness and usefulness of the supplier selection model for multiple products with synergy effect. The results indicate that the proposed supplier selection model is able to select suppliers for multiple products simultaneously and incorporate the synergy effect between products. In addition, the agent interaction protocols and related algorithms used in the agent-based system supporting the multi-product supplier selection model are suitable and effective. / published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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