Managing flexibility in downstream supply chains

供应链管理需要更好地匹配供应与需求。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。解决这些问题最有效的对策之一是提高供应链的灵活性。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，使其对需求不确定性作出更积极的反应，但与下游供应链灵活性相关的文献——如何操纵分销策略/需求以迎合供应的波动/随机性——在运营环境中相当有限。**我计划探索将下游灵活性纳入供应链的价值，并寻求其与上游供应链灵活性的联系。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。目标是调查下游供应链的灵活性应该如何适当地设计、操作，并与上游灵活机制保持一致。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)为各自机制制定相应的产能/库存控制政策；(3)探索多家供应商合作的潜力，以利用下游的灵活性。**本研究将通过将对供应链灵活性的理解扩展到一个新的维度来丰富文献。对于上游灵活性难以实现或成本昂贵的行业来说，这一结果有望传递重要信息。关于风险和不确定性管理、库存/产能控制和供应链协调的传统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/全球工业以及商业/工程学校的教学产生重大影响。****

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.****