دانلود رایگان مقاله توزیع سود عادلانه در زنجیره تامین پلکانی از طریق قیمت های انتقال

Abstract

The total profit maximisation of a supply chain network may result in an uneven and impractical profit distribution among the members. This work addresses the fair profit distribution within a multi-echelon supply chain using transfer prices. A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model framework is proposed for the optimal production, distribution and capacity planning of a supply chain network of an active ingredient (AI), consisting of AI plants, formulation plants and markets. The transfer prices of the AI from AI plants to formulation plants, and those of products from formulation plants to markets are to be optimised. The proportional and max-min fairness criteria are adopted to define fair profit distributions. Considering bargaining powers of supply chain members, game theoretic solution approaches are developed for fair solutions using Nash bargaining and lexicographic maximin principles. Especially, a hierarchical approach is developed to obtain an approximate optimal fair solution efficiently. The applicability and efficiency of the proposed approaches are demonstrated by two examples, including a real world agrochemical supply chain network.

7. Conclusions

This work addressed the fair profit distribution problem within a three-echelon supply chain network in the process industry, consisting of AI plants, formulation plants and markets with different bargaining powers. An MILP-based decision framework has been developed for production, distribution and capacity planning of the supply chain network. To achieve a fair profit distribution among all supply chain members involved, game theoretic approaches using Nash bargaining and lexicographic maximin principles were adopted under two different fairness criteria, proportional and max-min fairness. Especially, a tailored computationally efficient hierarchical approach has been proposed for max-min fair solutions. Two examples were examined, and computational results showed that both Nash bargaining and lexicographic maximin approachs can achieve fairer profit distribution, compared to what obtained by maximising total profit, in terms of proportional and max-min fairness, respectively. The effects of bargaining powers of supply chain members on profit distribution were studied. For large instances where the classic iterative lexicographic maximisation approach is highly time consuming, the proposed hierarchical approach is able to find good approximate optimal max-min fair profit distributions with much less computational efforts. At last, through sensitivity analysis, the values of an important parameter in the proposed hierarchical approach was investigated.

As to the future research directions, uncertainties of product demands can be considered and incorporated into the optimisation. In addition, the competition between products in the same group at markets can be studied. More detailed planning and scheduling decisions at plants can also be considered (Liu et al., 2008, 2010a,b, 2012). This work can be further extended to global supply chain networks, considering additional features, e.g., different tax rates and exchange rates.