Managing flexibility in downstream supply chains

供应链管理要求更好地使供应与需求相匹配。然而，这一目标不断受到普遍存在的风险和不确定性的挑战。提高供应链的柔性是解决这些问题的有效对策之一。虽然存在关于上游供应链灵活性的整体文献，研究如何调整制造/供应活动以更好地应对需求的不确定性，但与下游供应链灵活性相关的文献-如何操纵分销策略/需求以满足供应的波动/随机性，在运营背景下相当有限。 我计划探讨在供应链中纳入下游灵活性的价值，并寻求其与上游供应链灵活性的联系。将从运营角度研究各种下游灵活机制，包括灵活定价、灵活产品和灵活分销渠道。我们的目标是研究如何下游供应链的灵活性应该适当地设计，操作，并与上游灵活的机制。建议的项目包括（1）确定各种下游灵活机制在对冲供应风险和需求风险方面的好处;（2）描述相应机制的相应产能/库存控制政策;（3）探索多个供应商之间合作利用下游灵活性的潜力。 该研究将丰富文献，扩大了对供应链柔性的理解向一个新的维度。预计结果将向上游灵活性难以实现或成本高昂的行业提供重要信息。传统的风险和不确定性管理，库存/能力控制和供应链协调的讨论将从一个完全不同的角度进行分析。所有这些都将对加拿大/全球行业以及商业/工程学校的教学产生强烈的影响。

Supply chain management entails better matching supply with demand. However, this goal is constantly challenged by prevalent risks and uncertainties. One of the most effective countermeasures towards these issues is to increase the flexibility of supply chain. While there exists a holistic literature on upstream supply chain flexibility that studies how manufacturing/supply activities can be adjusted towards being more responsive upon demand uncertainties, those related to downstream supply chain flexibility - how distribution strategies/demand can be manipulated to cater the fluctuations/randomness in supply, are rather limited in operational context. I plan to explore the value of incorporating downstream flexibility in supply chains and also pursue its connection with upstream supply chain flexibility. Various downstream-flexible mechanisms including flexible pricing, flexible products and flexible distribution channels will be studied from an operational perspective. The target is to investigate how downstream supply chain flexibility should be properly designed, operationalized, and aligned with upstream flexible mechanisms. The proposed projects include (1) identifying the benefit of various downstream-flexible mechanisms in hedging supply risks as well as demand risks; (2) characterizing the corresponding capacity/inventory control policies for respective mechanisms; (3) exploring the potential for cooperation among multiple suppliers in taking advantage of downstream flexibilities. The study will enrich the literature by expanding the understanding of supply chain flexibility towards a new dimension. The results are expected to deliver important messages upon industries where upstream flexibility is difficult or expensive to achieve. Traditional discussions of risk and uncertainty management, inventory/capacity controls, and supply chain coordination will be analyzed from a completely different angle. All these will have strong implications to the Canadian/global industries and also for business/engineering school teaching.