In this thesis, we corroborate that the optimality in discounted profit setting is attained by a threshold policy which consists of base stock level and price switch thresholds. And we prove that the optimality and the structured properties of the optimal policy are inherit to the average profit setting. Furthermore, we find that the optimal policy in average profit setting is a piece-wise constant, left continuous and increasing function of the contractual sales rate, and the optimal average profit is a concave function about the contractual sales rate. More importantly, we evaluate the long-term contract with average profit criterion and provide an optimal supply curve, which is a strictly increasing function of contractual sales price. Manufacturer can use the curve as a baseline to negotiate a contract with contractual customer, who may present a demand curve. In addition, we extend the main results to an emergent supply mode, and we find that the optimal average profit is not only a concave function of contractual sales rate, but also an increasing concave function of the sales rate when the contractual purchase price is postulated to be higher than the additional penalty cost. / Keywords. Make-to-stock production mode, Capacity allocation, Production control, Retailing system, Demand process management, Dynamic pricing, Contract evaluation, Finished goods inventory management, Demand curve, Supply curve, Poisson process. / This thesis investigates a situation in which a manufacturing system produces a single item in make-to-stock mode with controllable production capability and sells the product through two independent marketing channels: a long-term contractual sales channel with constant prices and sales rate pre-specified by primary negotiation, and another retail market with dynamic prices specified by the manufacturer. In this setting, maximizing the long run average (or total) profit not only depends on joint management of the finished goods inventory and demand processes, but more importantly, depends on capacity allocation between these two sales channels. / Chen Liuxin. / "August 2006." / Adviser: Yonyi Feng. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-03, Section: B, page: 1909. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 110-117). / 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.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

Bibliography: leaves 350-402. This thesis is concerned with the process of change and adaptation in four Australian manufacturing companies in the period 1989 to 1996. The thesis seeks to explain the reaction of these companies to the pressures for change, and particularly for the adoption of 'best practice' management prescriptions in the organization of work and human resource management. The operating hypothesis adopted is that the pattern of changes undertaken by manufacturing organizations are shaped by a variety of factors both external to and within the company, but that management beliefs and orientations are a key element in understanding the pace and extent of change. The research is pursued through detailed case studies designed to explore at length pressures for change and continuity in corporate decision-making.

Bibliography: leaves 350-402. / x, 412 leaves ; 31 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / This thesis is concerned with the process of change and adaptation in four Australian manufacturing companies in the period 1989 to 1996. The thesis seeks to explain the reaction of these companies to the pressures for change, and particularly for the adoption of 'best practice' management prescriptions in the organization of work and human resource management. The operating hypothesis adopted is that the pattern of changes undertaken by manufacturing organizations are shaped by a variety of factors both external to and within the company, but that management beliefs and orientations are a key element in understanding the pace and extent of change. The research is pursued through detailed case studies designed to explore at length pressures for change and continuity in corporate decision-making. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Economics, 2001

In this thesis, a framework for market-based resource allocation in manufacturing is developed and described. The most salient feature of the proposed framework is that it builds on a foundation of well-established economic theory and uses the theory to guide both the agent and market design. There are two motivations for introducing the added complexity of the market metaphor into a decision-making environment that is traditionally addressed using monolithic, centralized techniques. First, markets are composed of autonomous, self-interested agents with well defined boundaries, capabilities, and knowledge. By decomposing a large, complex decision problem along these lines, the task of formulating the problem and identifying its many conflicting objectives is simplified. Second, markets provide a means of encapsulating the many interdependencies between agents into a single mechanism—price. By ignoring the desires and objectives of all other agents and selfishly maximizing their own expected utility over a set of prices, the agents achieve a high degree of independence from one another. Thus, the market provides a means of achieving distributed computation. To test the basic feasibility of the market-based approach, a prototype, system is used to generate solutions to small instances of a very general class of manufacturing scheduling problems. The agents in the system bid in competition with other agents to secure contracts for scarce production resources. In order to accurately model the complexity and uncertainty of the manufacturing environment, agents are implemented as decision-theoretic planners. By using dynamic programming, the agents can determine their optimal course of action given their resource requirements. Although each agent-level planning problem (like the global level planning problem) induces an unsolvably large Markov Decision Problem, the structured dynamic programming algorithm exploits sources of independence within the problem and is shown to greatly increase the size of problems that can be solved in practice. In the final stage of the framework, an auction is used to determine the ultimate allocation of resource bundles to parts. Although the resulting combinational auctions are generally intractable, highly optimized algorithms do exist for finding efficient equilibria. In this thesis, a heuristic auction protocol is introduced and is shown to be capable of eliminating common modes of market failure in combinational auctions.

In this thesis, a framework for market-based resource allocation in manufacturing is developed and described. The most salient feature of the proposed framework is that it builds on a foundation of well-established economic theory and uses the theory to guide both the agent and market design. There are two motivations for introducing the added complexity of the market metaphor into a decision-making environment that is traditionally addressed using monolithic, centralized techniques. First, markets are composed of autonomous, self-interested agents with well defined boundaries, capabilities, and knowledge. By decomposing a large, complex decision problem along these lines, the task of formulating the problem and identifying its many conflicting objectives is simplified. Second, markets provide a means of encapsulating the many interdependencies between agents into a single mechanism—price. By ignoring the desires and objectives of all other agents and selfishly maximizing their own expected utility over a set of prices, the agents achieve a high degree of independence from one another. Thus, the market provides a means of achieving distributed computation. To test the basic feasibility of the market-based approach, a prototype, system is used to generate solutions to small instances of a very general class of manufacturing scheduling problems. The agents in the system bid in competition with other agents to secure contracts for scarce production resources. In order to accurately model the complexity and uncertainty of the manufacturing environment, agents are implemented as decision-theoretic planners. By using dynamic programming, the agents can determine their optimal course of action given their resource requirements. Although each agent-level planning problem (like the global level planning problem) induces an unsolvably large Markov Decision Problem, the structured dynamic programming algorithm exploits sources of independence within the problem and is shown to greatly increase the size of problems that can be solved in practice. In the final stage of the framework, an auction is used to determine the ultimate allocation of resource bundles to parts. Although the resulting combinational auctions are generally intractable, highly optimized algorithms do exist for finding efficient equilibria. In this thesis, a heuristic auction protocol is introduced and is shown to be capable of eliminating common modes of market failure in combinational auctions. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate