Editorial Discrete Dynamics in Supply Chain Management

EditorialDiscrete Dynamics in Supply Chain Management

Tinggui Chen,1 Kai Huang,2 and Zhigang Jiang3

1 School of Computer and Information Engineering, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310018, China2DeGroote School of Business, DSB 404, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S4M43Green Manufacturing Engineering and Operations Management Institute, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan,Hubei 430081, China

Correspondence should be addressed to Tinggui Chen; [email protected]

Received 24 March 2014; Accepted 24 March 2014; Published 4 June 2014

Copyright © 2014 Tinggui Chen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Supply chain management (SCM) is considered as theintegration of business processes in providing products orservices to end customers by establishing a strategic allianceof all parties, which has become a critical means of addingvalue to products and increasing the company’s competitiveadvantage. However, organizations in the supply chains inreal world are always vulnerable to partial or completedisruptions. Various factors such as natural disasters, laborstrikes, power outages, parts shortages, quality related recalls,transportation interruptions, and machine breakdowns canlead to performance fluctuations or even disruptions ofbusiness processes in organizations, which indicates thatsupply chain processes are dynamic, discrete, volatile, andunpredictable.

The main objective of this special issue is to present theoriginal research and review articles on the latest theoreticaland practical achievements that will contribute to the fieldof discrete and dynamics supply chain management, in allbranches of management science.

The special issue received 52 high quality submissionsfrom different countries all over the world. All submittedmanuscripts have followed the same standard (peer-reviewedby at least three independent reviewers) as applied to regularones to this journal. Due to space limit, only 21 paperscould be published (acceptance ratio of 1 : 2.5). Inevitably,difficult decisions had to be made, and some high-qualitysubmissions could not be included. The primary guide-line was to demonstrate discrete dynamics in supply chainmanagement. Besides, some novel research questions fromdifferent applications that are worth further investigation inthe future are also included.

In the paper “Price and service competition of dual-channel supply chain with consumer returns,” L. Ren et al. pro-pose dual-channel supply chain models involving consumerreturns policies. Also, the price and service competitionbetween retail channel and direct channel is considered in themodels. According to the models, they analyze the optimaldecisions in both centralized and decentralized scenarios.Then they design a new contract, coordinate the dual-channel supply chain, and enable both the retailer and themanufacturer to be a win-win.

In the paper “Viability discrimination of a class of controlsystems on a nonsmooth region,” N. Zhao et al. considerthe viability for both an affine nonlinear hybrid systemand a hybrid differential inclusion on a region with sub-differentiable boundary. Based on the nonsmooth analysistheory, they obtain a method to verify the viability conditionat a point, when the boundary function of the region issubdifferentiable and its subdifferential is convex hull ofmany finite points.

In the paper “Incentive contract in supply chain with asym-metric information,” Y. Su et al. use principal-agent theory andthe theory of regulation to design the contract to realize themaximization of principal’s profit on the condition that thecontract satisfies the participant and incentive conditions ofagent. As a result, it is obvious that the contract achieves thegoal of control. In addition, it also can be concluded that theamount of rent that the manufacturer can obtain is up to thevalue of his information and the condition of his resource.

In the paper entitled “A constraint programming methodfor advanced planning and scheduling system with multilevelstructured products,” Y. Peng et al. deal with the advanced

Hindawi Publishing CorporationDiscrete Dynamics in Nature and SocietyVolume 2014, Article ID 913750, 4 pageshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/913750

2 Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society

planning and scheduling (APS) problem with multilevelstructured products. A constraint programming model isconstructed for the problem with the consideration of prece-dence constraints, capacity constraints, release time, anddue date. A new constraint programming (CP) method isproposed to minimize the total cost. This method is basedon iterative solving via branch and bound. And, at eachnode, the constraint propagation technique is adapted fordomain filtering and consistency check. Three branchingstrategies are compared to improve the search speed. Theresults of computational study show that the proposed CPmethod performs better than the traditional mixed integerprogramming (MIP) method. And the binary constraintheuristic branching strategy is more effective than the othertwo branching strategies.

In the paper “Multiobjective vehicle routing problem withroute balance based on genetic algorithm,” W. Zhou et al.propose a genetic algorithm to solve the biobjective vehiclerouting problem with time windows simultaneously consid-ering total distance and distance balance of active vehiclefleet. A new complex chromosome is used to present theactive vehicle route. Through tournament selection, one-point crossover, and migrating mutation operator, the solu-tion of the problem is solved. In experiment on Solomon’sbenchmark problems, considering the total distance anddistance balance, the results are improved in all classes ofproblems. According to the experimental results, the sug-gested approach is sufficient and the averageGAperformanceis good.

In the paper entitled “The game analysis of manufacturers’political connections on product safety in supply chain: evidencefromChina,” Z.Na andW.Fusheng study the political connec-tions on product safety in supply chain. In market economy,information asymmetry exists throughout the entirety ofsupply chains that ought to ensure product safety. Due tothe existence of game relations between the government andmanufacturers in the aspects of product safety and regulation,the formation of market equilibrium depends on politicalconnections between the government and manufacturers.Based on study and analyses of a static game model and adynamic game model, this paper reveals that governmentsand manufacturers must use positive political connectionsto achieve product protection and supervision of safetythroughout the supply chain. On the other hand, negativepolitical connections lead to losses of both governmentalcredibility and social profits. This study indicates that inher-ent mechanism of political connections exists in the supplychain; it will help to enrich the theory of supply chain.

The paper of H. Wang et al. entitled “Optimizing routefor hazardous materials logistics based on hybrid ant colonyalgorithm” devises an improved hybrid ant colony algorithm(HACA) to deal with optimizing route for hazardous materi-als logistics (ORHML). To achieve the purpose of balancingrisk and cost for route based on the principle ofACA that usedto solve TSP, the improvedHACAwas designed. Consideringthe capacity of road network and themaximum expected risklimits, a route optimization model to minimize the total costis established based on network flow theory. Improvementon route construction rule and pheromone updating rule was

adopted on the basis of the former algorithm.An examplewasanalyzed to demonstrate the correctness of the application.It is proved that improved HACA is efficient and feasible insolving ORHML.

In the paper entitled “System dynamics model forVMI&TPL integrated supply chains,” G. Li et al. establishVMI-APIOBPCS II model by extending VMI-APIOBPCSmodel from serial supply chain to distribution supply chain.Then TPL is introduced to this VMI distribution supplychain, and operational framework and process of VMI&TPLintegrated supply chain are analyzed deeply. On this basisVMI-APIOBPCS II model is then changed to VMI&TPL-APIOBPCSmodel andVMI&TPL integrated operationmodeis simulated. Finally, comparedwith VMI-APIOBPCSmodel,the TPL’s important role of goods consolidation and risksharing in VMI&TPL integrated supply chain is analyzed indetail from the aspects of bullwhip effect, inventory level,service level, and so on.

In the paper entitled “A location-allocation model forseaport-dry port system optimization,” X. Feng et al. constructa location-allocation model for the regional seaport-dryport network optimization problem and develop a greedyalgorithm and a genetic algorithm to obtain its solution.Thismodel is applicable to situations under which the geographicdistribution of demand is known. A case study involvingconfiguration of dry ports near the west bank of the TaiwanStrait is conducted, and the model is successfully applied.

In the paper entitled “An inventory controlled supplychain model based on improved BP neural network,” Wei Heapplies the improved BP neural networkmodel to predict theinventory level of an automotive parts company. The resultsshow that the improved algorithm not only significantlyexceeds the standard algorithm but also outperforms someother improved BP algorithms both on convergence rate andprediction accuracy.

In the paper entitled “Tourist behavior pattern miningmodel based on context,” D.-s. Liu and S.-j. Fan take thecontext into consideration and propose an analyzed methodto the tourist based on the context. Firstly, they analyze thecontext which influences the tourist behavior patterns, selectthe main context factors, and construct the tourist behaviorpattern model based on it. Then, they calculate the interestdegree of the tourist behavior pattern and mine out the ruleswith high interest degree with the association rule algorithm.At last, an experiment is given so as to show the feasibility andeffectiveness of their method.

In the paper entitled “Coordination in the decentralizedassembly system with dual supply modes,” X. Guan andM. Liuinvestigate a decentralized assembly system that consists ofone assembler and two independent suppliers, wherein onesupplier is perfectly reliable for the production, while theother generates yield uncertainty. Facing the random marketdemand, the assembler has to order the components fromonesupplier in advance and meanwhile requires the other sup-plier to deliver the components under VMI mode.They con-struct a Nash game between the supplier and the assemblerso as to derive their equilibrium procurement/productionstrategies. The results show that the channel’s performance ishighly undermined by the decentralization between players

Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society 3

and also the combination of two supply modes. Comparedto the centralized system, they propose an advance paymentcontract to perfectly coordinate the supply chain perfor-mance. The numerical examples indicate some managementimplications on the supply mode comparison and sensitivityanalysis.

In the paper “Dynamic pricing and supply coordina-tion with reimbursement contract under random yield anddemand,” G. Li et al. study the dynamic pricing and supplychain coordination in a decentralized system that consistsof one supplier and one manufacturer, in which both themarket demand and production yield are stochastic. Theyshow that the centralized expected profit is jointly concavein the production quantity and order quantity when the priceis ex ante selected.They also derive the equilibrium strategiesin the decentralized system and prove that the entire profit ofsupply chain is inevitably lower than that under centralizedsystem. Based on this, the authors propose a reimbursementcontract to coordinate the decentralized supply chain so asto achieve the maximized profit. It is worth mentioning that,under reimbursement contract, the equilibrium productionand order quantities are irrelevant to the manufacturer’s risksharing coefficient but are only determined by the supplier’srisk sharing coefficient.

In the paper “Research on self-organization in resilientrecovery of cluster supply chains,” L. Geng et al. exploredealing with high-risk and low-probability disruptions. First,the paper describes the representation method of clustersupply chain resilience. Second, a cluster supply chain net-work structure generation model is proposed. And basedon cascading effect model, it makes analysis of dynamicevolution process when cluster supply chain failure hap-pens. Then it focuses on the self-organization characteris-tic, which contributes to cluster supply chain emergenceof overall resilient recovery through local self-organizationreconstruction behavior. They also make theoretical analysisof cluster supply chain network characteristics and its effecton the resilience, which helps to illustrate that the root ofvulnerability lies in cascading failure while self-organizationis the key to resilient recovery. Besides, with the study of self-organization characteristic, it provides theoretical guidancefor local control and further achievement of overall resilientoptimization.

In the paper entitled “Optimal acquisition and inventorycontrol for a remanufacturing system,” Z. Jiang et al. proposea method for optimal acquisition and inventory control of aremanufacturing system. The method considers three inven-tories, one for returned item and the other for serviceable andrecoverable items. Taking the holding cost for returns andrecoverable and remanufactured products, remanufacturingcost, disposal cost, and the loss caused by backlog intoaccount, the optimal inventory control model is establishedto minimize the total costs. Finally, a numerical example isprovided to illustrate the proposed methods.

In the paper “Two-level credit financing for noninstanta-neous deterioration items in a supply chain with downstreamcredit-linked demand,” Y. He and H. Huang assume that theitems have the property of noninstantaneous deteriorationand the demand is a function of downstream credit. Then,

an EOQ model for noninstantaneous deterioration is builtbased on the two-level financing policy. The purpose of thispaper is to maximize the total average profit by determiningthe optimal downstream credit period, the optimal replen-ishment cycle length, and the optimal ordering quantityper cycle. Useful theorems are proposed to characterize themethod of obtaining the optimal solutions. Based on thetheorems, an algorithm is designed, and numerical testsand sensitive analysis are provided. Lastly, according to thesensitive analysis, managerial insights are proposed.

In the paper “Location optimization of multidistributioncenters based on low-carbon constraints,” P. Zhao et al.analyze the necessity of industrial carbon dioxide emissioncost internalization in four aspects and build a model formultidistribution centers location in effort to reduce carbonfootprint that can provide optimized strategy support fordecision makers and logistic operators. Numerical examplesare presented to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness ofthe models.

In the paper “Simulation research of space-time evolutionof emergency logistics network reliability based on complex net-work theory,” L. Huang et al. propose the conception and eval-uation indexes of emergency logistics network connectingreliability to construct evaluation index system of complexnetwork reliability and describe these indexes quantitativelyto evaluate the network connecting reliability. Moreover, thenetwork topological model and the simulation methods ofreliability measurement when the network is under attack arepresent. Finally, the authors take three classical emergencylogistics networks as examples, and through emulation anal-ysis they obtain the connecting reliability changing situationof these three networks under random attack, the changingcurve of the ratio of effective demand nodes, and emergencesupply mileage of emergency logistics network with the samenetwork density but different forms and then evaluate theemergency logistics network connecting reliability. This canprovide references for the designing of emergency logisticsnetwork with high reliability and analysis means for researchin other fields.

In the paper entitled “Risk-averse suppliers’ optimal pricingstrategies in a two-stage supply chain,” risk-averse suppliers’optimal pricing strategies in two-stage supply chains undercompetitive environment are discussed. The suppliers in thispaper focus more on losses as compared to profits, and theycare about their long-term relationship with their customers.R. Shen et al. introduce for the suppliers a loss function,which covers both current loss and future loss. The optimalwholesale price is solved under situations of risk neutral, riskaverse, and a combination of minimizing loss and controllingrisk, respectively. Besides, some properties and relationsamong these optimal wholesale prices are given as well. Anumerical example is given to illustrate the performance ofthe proposed method.

In the paper “Personal recommendation using a novelcollaborative filtering algorithm in customer relationship man-agement,” C. Xu constructs a user recommendation modelcontaining a new method to compute the similarities amongusers on bipartite networks. Different from other standardsimilarities, he considers the influence of each object node

4 Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society

including popular degree, preference degree, and trust rela-tionship. Substituting these new definitions of similarity forthe standard cosine similarity, the author proposes a mod-ified collaborative filtering algorithm based on multifactors(CF-M). Detailed experimental analysis on two benchmarkdatasets shows that the CF-M is of high accuracy and alsogenerates more diversity.

In the paper “Collaborative policy of supply-hub forassemble-to-order systems with delivery uncertainty,” G. Liet al. build a collaborative replenishment model in theassembly-to-order system based on supply-hub under deliv-ery uncertainty, transform the original model into a one-dimensional optimization problem appropriately, and thencalculate the optimal assembly quantity of the manufac-ture and the optimal order points of various componentsuppliers. In order to enable collaborative replenishment,penalties and bonus mechanisms are proposed for supply-hub to coordinate various component suppliers. Based on theanalysis in detail, they can conclude that when the penaltycoefficient is very large, the suppliers will do their best todeliver on time, and when the reward of the supplier’s on-time delivery is great enough, the suppliers will avoid delaydelivery. The numerical analyses also show that penalty andbonus mechanisms can significantly improve the supplier’sinitiative of collaborative replenishment, thus improving theservice level in assemble-to-order systems. This paper alsoprovides a theoretical basis as well as useful guidance to thepractice of collaborative replenishment in assemble-to-ordersystems based on supply-hub under delivery uncertainty.

The study of discrete dynamics in supply chain manage-ment is still in its early stage. This special issue demonstratesthe theoretical and practical importance of further studies indiscrete dynamics in supply chain management.

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to all of the authorsfor their contributions and the reviewers for their effortproviding valuable comments and feedback. We hope thisspecial issue offers a comprehensive and timely view of thearea of discrete dynamics in supply chain management andthat it will offer stimulation for further research. The work isalso supported by the National Natural Science Foundationof China (51205295) and Wuhan Youth Chenguang Programof Science and Technology (2014070404010214).

Tinggui ChenKai Huang

Zhigang Jiang

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