New and efficient algorithms for transfer prices and inventory holding policies in two-enterprise supply chains

We consider a multi-period problem of fair transfer prices and inventory holding policies in two enterprise supply chains. This problem was formulated as a mixed integer non-linear program by Gjerdrum et al. (Eur J Oper Res 143:582–599, <CitationRef CitationID="CR8">2002</CitationRef>). Existing global optimization methods to solve this problem are computationally expensive. We propose a continuous approach based on difference of convex functions (DC) programming and DC Algorithms (DCA) for solving this combinatorial optimization problem. The problem is first reformulated as a DC program via an exact penalty technique. Afterward, DCA, an efficient local approach in non-convex programming framework, is investigated to solve the resulting problem. For globally solving this problem, we investigate a combined DCA-Branch and Bound algorithm. DCA is applied to get lower bounds while upper bounds are computed from a relaxation problem. The numerical results on several test problems show that the proposed algorithms are efficient: DCA provides a good integer solution in a short CPU time although it works on a continuous domain, and the combined DCA-Branch and Bound finds an <InlineEquation ID="IEq1"> <EquationSource Format="TEX">$$\epsilon $$</EquationSource> <EquationSource Format="MATHML"> <math xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <mi mathvariant="italic">ϵ</mi> </math> </EquationSource> </InlineEquation>-optimal solution for large-scale problems in a reasonable time. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014