Motivated by real-life business issues of Toyota China dealerships, we consider inventory-control models with delivery upgrades, in which the seller allocates its on-hand inventory to price and delivery-time sensitive customers. The seller has two decisions: inventory commitment and inventory...

A simulation model based on a real wafer fabrication is used to investigate the robustness of the two boundary (TB) production control strategy to the existing uniform loading policy used in a semiconductor fab. Our findings confirm that the TB policy is the most robust of all when random...

A supplier provides several lead-time options to its customers in a periodic review inventory system. The replenishment lead time is a multiple of the inventory review cycle. Customers are classified into two groups: short lead-time customers requiring the product immediately and long lead-time...

We investigate the impact of the process of manufacturing and distribution on the safety stock levels in a supply chain. A pipeline hedging method is used to derive a model for estimating the safety stock levels. We propose methods and guidelines to redesign the manufacturing and distribution...

We study a two-stage purchase contract with a demand forecast update. The purchase contract provides the buyer an opportunity to adjust an initial commitment based on an updated demand forecast obtained at a later stage. An adjustment, if any, incurs a fixed as well as a variable cost. Using a...

In “Coordination of Supply Chains with Risk-Averse Agents” (POMS, Volume 13, 2004), we study the issue of coordination in supply chains involving risk-averse agents, and define a coordinating contract as one that results in a Pareto-optimal solution acceptable to each agent. We then develop...

We propose a model where customers are classified into two groups: short lead-time customers who require the product immediately and long lead-time customers to whom the supplier may deliver either immediately or in the next cycle. Unmet orders are backlogged with associated costs. Specifically,...

This paper describes a flow rate control policy to manage the production of a wafer fabrication facility. The policy is derived by formulating and solving a stochastic control problem. The results are then used to develop two sets of production control rules. The first one adjusts the lot...

Semiconductor manufacturing performed on expensive machines requires repetitive use of several similar processing operations. Owing to economic considerations, these expensive machines are always shared among many products or a product at different stages of its manufacturing process. The...

This paper presents an asymptotic analysis of hierarchical production planning in a manufacturing system with two tandem machines that are subject to breakdown and repair. Since the number of parts in the buffer between the two machines needs to be non-negative, the problem is inherently a state...