Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: Service-Level Agreements and Supply Chain Coordination

随着互联网零售越来越受欢迎，拉式合同的使用也越来越受欢迎;拉式合同是一组用于供应商持有库存并将产品直接运送给零售商的合同。的最终客户。 采用这种满足需求的方法的零售商经常面临这样的问题：如何以最大化利润的方式与供应商建立这些合同。 在这篇博士论文研究中，合作PI研究了如何设计拉式合同的问题，以便让零售商和供应商在选择和构建此类合同时做出更明智的决策。该研究将从理论和实验上解决这个问题，重点放在拉式合同的一个子集上，称为服务水平协议（SLA）。 SLA是一种供应链合同，当供应商满足零售商的某一部分时，零售商向供应商支付奖金。的要求。 虽然SLA在工业中非常普遍，但其理论性质和实际性能特征尚未得到广泛研究。 这项工作将确定在实践中看到的SLA的某些变化是否会导致零售商和/或供应商的最高利润相比，其他拉contracts.The更广泛的影响，这项研究是在于它的潜力，以提高供应链的效率。

As internet retailing increases in popularity, so does the use of pull contracts; a group of contracts used in any setting where the supplier holds the inventory and ships product directly to the retailer?s end customers. Retailers adopting this method of satisfying demand are frequently presented with the problem of constructing these contracts with their suppliers in a way that maximizes profit. In this Doctoral Dissertation research, the co-PI examines the issue of how pull contracts should be designed so as to allow retailers and suppliers to make more informed decisions when choosing and structuring such contracts.The research will address the issue theoretically and experimentally, placing emphasis on one subset of pull contracts called service-level agreements (SLAs). SLAs are a type of supply chain contract where a retailer pays a bonus to its supplier when its supplier satisfies a certain fraction of the retailer?s demand. Though SLAs are very common in industry, their theoretical properties and actual performance characteristics have not been extensively studied. This work will determine if certain variations of SLAs seen in practice result in the highest profit for the retailer and/or supplier compared to other pull contracts.The broader impact of this research is lies in its potential to improve supply chain efficiency.