Analysis of an Inventory System for Items with Price-Dependent Demand and Time Dependent Three-Parameter Weibull Deterioration Function

In this research work we propose a mathematical model of an inventory system with time dependent three-parameter Weibull deterioration and price-dependent demand rate. The model incorporates shortages and deteriorating items are considered in which inventory is depleted not only by demand but also by decay, such as, direct spoilage as in fruits, vegetables and food products, or deterioration as in obsolete electronic components. Furthermore, the rate of deterioration is taken to be time-proportional, and a power law form of the price dependence of demand is considered. This price-dependence of the demand function is nonlinear, and is such that when price of a commodity increases, demand decreases and when price of a commodity decreases, demand increases. The objective of the model is to minimize the total inventory costs. From the numerical example presented to illustrate the solution procedure of the model, we obtain meaningful results. We then proceed to perform sensitivity analysis of our model. The sensitivity analysis illustrates the extent to which the optimal solution of the model is affected by slight changes or errors in its input parameter values.

SUPPLY CHAIN DECISION-MAKING AND COORDINATION UNDER PRICE-DEPENDENT DEMAND

This paper studies the decision-making and coordination of supply chain （SC） considering the effect of price-dependent demand. By assuming demand decreases as the price increases, we analyse the impacts of the dependence on the SC in three different models： decentralized without coordination, centralized coordination and decentralized with coordination by revenue sharing contract. The existence of the best solution in the different models is proved, and the performance of revenue sharing coordination SC is similar to the centralized one. We find that the more evidently the price affects the demand, the more revenue sharing contract improves the performance of SC. The dependence affects the decision-making and the parameter setting of revenue sharing contract is also found.

STOCHASTIC COMPARISONS IN A PRICE-QUANTITY SETTING FIRM WITH UNCERTAIN DEMAND AND EMERGENCY PROCUREMENT

We consider a newsvendor problem with price-dependent demand, in either additive or multiplicative format. The newsvendor has two modes of purchasing： regular ordering at the beginning of the selling season and emergency ordering （if the realized demand exceeds the initial order quantity） at the end of the selling season. By stochastic comparisons, we systematically investigate the effects of demand magnitude and demand randomness on pricing and ordering quantity decisions as well as expected profit of the newsvendor, under both usual stochastic order （first order stochastic dominance） and convex order （less variable）. Our key findings include： （i） in contrary to the case where price is exogenous, a stochastically larger demand shock may even lead to a lower order quantity; （ii） a stochastically larger demand shock leads to a higher price for the additive demand case, but may lead to a lower price for the multiplicative demand case; （iii） a stochastically larger demand shock leads to a higher expected profit for both demand models; （iv） in general, a less variable demand leads to a higher expected profit for both demand models; and furthermore, a less variable demand shock has no effect on price for the additive demand model, but leads to a higher price for the multiplicative demand model. The implications of all these findings for pricing and order quantity are discussed in detail.