Industrial robots are increasingly used by many manufacturing firms. The number of robot manufacturers has also increased, with many of these firms now offering a wide range of robots. A potential user is thus faced with many options in both performance and cost. Proposes a decision model for...

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to review the existing typologies of buyer-supplier relationships (BSRs) in the literature, to critically assess their dimensions and underlying assumptions, and to propose a more complete BSR typology and future directions for BSR typology research....

Addresses an actual problem of assigning customers to employees in a mail order firm. The management of the firm groups customers based on the first letter of the last name. To make assigning responsibility for handling customer orders easier, management specifies that no letter group can be...

In some manufacturing systems, the type of production technology selected dictates the lot size, or sets an upper limit on it. In this paper, we formulate a model in which the lot sizing decision has to be made at the technology selection stage. Furthermore, the cost of the technology depends on...

Many service providers, such as restaurants, are selling their gift cards through independent retailers. We analyze a supply chain of a service provider who sells products and gift cards at face value at its locations. The service provider also sells its gift cards through a retailer. Consumers...

In this paper, we develop a newsvendor model in which the retailer gives “free” gift cards to consumers who purchase a regularly priced product at the end of the selling season instead of discounting the product. The model is developed for a market with patient consumers. We derive the...

Some manufacturers sponsor “free” retailer gift cards to be given to consumers who purchase their products. These gift cards are paid for by the manufacturer and are redeemable on all products at the retailer. We develop a model of such a supply chain. We analyze cases in which the gift...

In rental information goods supply chain, such as movie DVDs and computers games, the retailer decides on the quantity of DVDs to purchase from the supplier, the rental fee, and the maximum rental duration. These decisions are directly affected by the price the supplier charges the retailers for...