Operational Decisions Of Retailer For Perishable Products Under Different Payment Strategies

In business transactions,both suppliers and retailers usually use a variety of payment schemes to settle the goods or services supplied(or purchased).Generally speaking,there are four common payment types: advance payment,cash payment,credit payment and hybrid payment.The ACC(Advance-Cash-Credit)payment in companion with price discount is one of the hybrid payment scheme.Because the ACC payment combines the advantages of credit payment and advance payment,it has attracted the attention of some scholars in recent years.In addition,the growing pressure of carbon emission reduction has prompted governments to formulate some policies to curb the amount of carbon emissions.As the main body of carbon emissions,enterprises can reduce their carbon footprint by adjusting their operational decisions.Based on the above industry practice,this thesis constructs the retailer's cost or profit models for perishable products under different payment strategies under the framework of supplier-retailer-customer supply chain.The thesis explores and compares the retailer's operational decisions,total cost per unit time(or total profit per unit time)and total carbon emissions per unit time under different payment types.The research results can help retailers make the payment selections and optimize their operational decisions.Meanwhile,it also bring new and important light to the field of carbon reduction.The main research contents of this thesis mainly include the following four aspects:First,based on the credit payment strategy,this thesis develops an inventory model for a single deteriorating item with ramp-type demand rate.Then,some theoretical results are obtained and an alternative approach is employed to find the optimal replenishment policy efficiently.In order to verify whether the credit period offered by the supplier is significant to affect retailer's ordering behaviour,a comparison between models without and with the strategy of credit payment is made.Through numerical examples,it is shown that when the credit period is longer than the changing point of the ramp type demand function,the advantage of the credit payment is more obvious,and thus it can entice the retailer to order more quantities.Second,based on cash payment,advance payment and credit payment,considering the carbon tax regulation and the expiration date of the perishable item,the retailer's optimal replenishment decision models under the above three payment types are constructed respectively.The existence and uniqueness of the optimal solutions are proved under each payment term.Finally,numerical experiments are conducted and the results among those three payment schemes are compared.Computational results provide evidences that theadvance payment in companion with price discount is the least costly for the buyer but leads to highest carbon emissions per unit time among all three payment schemes.While the credit payment is the best of all three payment schemes to curb carbon emissions and thus protect the climate and environment.Third,base on upstream ACC payment and downstream credit payment scheme with a price discount.This thesis studies the retailer's optimal replenishment strategy for a perishable item with time-varying increasing market demand.It is found that,it is cheaper for retailers to pay for the payment in upstream ACC payment and downstream credit payment than in upstream cash payment and downstream cash payment.The thesis further compares the retailer's operational decisions and total cost per unit time under upstream cash payment and downstream cash payment,upstream ACC,advance,cash,credit payment and downstream credit payment,it is found that upstream advance payment and downstream credit payment with a heavy price discount is the lowest cost to the retailer,while upstream credit payment and downstream credit payment(upstream credit period is shorter than the downstream credit period)is the highest cost to the retailer.Finally,base on upstream ACC payment and downstream partial credit payment scheme with a price discount and cap-and-trade regulation.This thesis constructs the retailer's profit model.The thesis intends to determine the optimum selling pricing,inventory period,and cycle time simultaneously which maximizes the retailer's total profit per unit time.A series of theoretical methods are explored and an effective algorithm is designed to solve the optimal solution.The retailer's operational decisions,total profit per unit time and total carbon emissions per unit time under upstream ACC,advance,cash,credit payment and downstream partial credit payment are compared.The numerical results show that,a higher discount rate associated with upstream advance payment and downstream partial credit payment is the most attractive to the retailer.However,it causes the most significant damage to the environment.The upstream ACC payment and downstream partial credit payment with a moderate discount rate or upstream credit payment and downstream partial credit payment scheme is recommended,as it brings more profits to the retailer and results in less damage to the environment.