GOALI/Collaborative Research: Matching Demand and Supply Through Price

最近的商业趋势和消费者行为模型的进展清楚地表明，对商品和服务的需求，以及反过来，公司的利润和客户的满意度，在很大程度上受到价格和交货时间决定的影响。实践和文献中的许多例子都表明，有效的价格和交货时间报价具有影响需求、管理拥堵和改善客户服务的潜力；然而，缺乏为价格、交货时间、订单选择和库存决策提供综合决策框架的研究。交货期报价的基本权衡是在报价短交货期和实现短交货期之间。同样，价格决策的权衡是在报价低以吸引顾客和实现盈利之间。理想情况下，公司应该采取全球视角，并协调其在价格、交货时间报价、订单接受和库存方面的决策，以提高盈利能力。此外，如果决策是由不同的单位独立做出的，那么通过设置正确的激励机制来协调这些决策，企业将受益。我们在这个项目中的目标是采用综合决策模型，并了解（动态）设定价格和交货时间的潜力，以实现利润最大化和改善客户服务。特别是，我们将研究和分析(i)通过动态价格和/或交货期报价影响绩效改进（利润和客户满意度）的因素，（ii）以分散的方式（即由不同的实体，如营销和制造部门）制定价格和交货期决策的影响，（iii）对订单、生产和库存决策管理的影响。拟议的研究预计将对研究、工业、社会和教育产生一系列更广泛的影响。它将产生新的公式和理论贡献，以及实时价格和交货时间报价的实际见解和算法。这些研究活动将与一系列教育活动相结合，以促进研究生、本科生和行业专业人士的培训和学习。价格和交货期决策的改进对于实现利润最大化、减少拥堵相关成本和提高客户满意度具有重要的潜力。在一个越来越多的公司转向按订单生产/按订单生产模式的时代，服务行业正以惊人的速度增长，有效定价和提前期报价的影响可能是巨大的。

Recent business trends and advances in consumer behavior modeling have clearly shown that demand for goods and services, and in turn, the profits of companies and the satisfaction of their customers, are significantly shaped by price and lead time decisions. Numerous examples from practice as well as the literature have shown the potential of effective price and lead time quotation to influence demand, manage congestion, and improve customer service; however, studies that provide an integrated decision making framework for price, lead time, order selection, and inventory decisions is lacking.The fundamental tradeoff in lead time quotation is between quoting short lead times and attaining them. Similarly, the tradeoff in price decisions is between quoting low prices to attract customers and achieving profitability. Ideally, a firm should take a global perspective and coordinate its decisions on price, lead time quotation, order acceptance, and inventory for increased profitability. In addition, if the decisions are made independently by different units, the firm would benefit from coordinating these decisions by setting the right incentives.Our objective in this project is to employ integrated decision making models and understand the potential for (dynamically) setting prices and lead times to maximize profits and improve customer service. In particular, we will study and analyze (i) the factors that affect the performance improvement (in profits and customer satisfaction) through dynamic price and/or lead time quotation, (ii) the impact of making price and lead time decisions in a decentralized fashion (i.e., by different entities such as marketing and manufacturing divisions), (iii) the implications for the management of orders, production, and inventory decisions.The proposed research is expected to have a number of broader impacts for research, industry, society, and education. It will result in novel formulations and theoretical contributions as well as practical insights and algorithms for real-time price and lead time quotation. The research activities will be integrated to a range of educational activities to promote training and learning by graduate and undergraduate students and industry professionals. Improvements in price and lead time decisions have significant potential to maximize profits, reduce congestion related costs, and improve customer satisfaction. In an age when more and more companies are moving towards make-to-order/build-to-order models and the service sector is growing at an astounding rate, the impact of effective pricing and lead time quotation can be tremendous.