This paper considers the deterministic capacity expansion problem with deterioration. First, the paper extends the conventional model by incorporating capacity deterioration effects and operating costs that are a function of: (i) the age of the facility and (ii) the extent of utilization of...

Some firms make all their products to order while others make them to stock. There are a number of firms that maintain a middle ground, where some items are made to stock and others are made to order. This paper was motivated by a consumer product company faced with the decision about which...

We consider some key features of capacity acquisition, disposal, and replacement decisions in this paper that are seldom captured in capacity expansion models in the literature. First, capacity is often purchased in the form of equipment which comes only in a few discrete sizes. Second, some or...

While quality has attracted significant attention in the past two decades, the debate is still on as to whether a firm should aim for zero defects or base its quality decisions on cost-benefit trade-offs. The continuous improvement advocates generally eschew the cost trade-off approach, but U.S....

In this paper, we study dynamic alliance formation among agents in competitive markets. We look at n agents selling substitutable products competing in a market. In this setting, we examine models with deterministic and stochastic demand, and we use a two-stage approach. In Stage 1, agents form...

We examine a decentralized supply chain in which a single assembler buys complementary components from n suppliers and assembles the final product in anticipation of demand. Players take actions in the following sequence. First (stage 1), the suppliers form coalitions among themselves. Second...