管科系系列讲座第185-186期预告

管科系系列讲座第185期预告

时间：2017年5月19日（周五）13:30

地点：史带楼503

主持人：冯天俊副教授

主讲嘉宾：Kuang Xu is an Assistant Professor of Operations, Information and Technology, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University

Title：On the Power of (even a little) Resource Pooling and Flexibility

Abstract: It is well known that resource pooling (or, equivalently, the use of flexible resources that can serve multiple types of requests) significantly improves the performance of service systems. On the other hand, complete resource pooling often results in higher infrastructure (communication and coordination) costs. This leads us to explore the benefits that can be derived by a limited amount of resource pooling, and the question whether a limited amount of pooled resources can deliver most of the benefits of complete resource pooling. Applications in skill-based call centers, health care, and flexible supply chains are among our main motivations. We demonstrate, in the context of some concrete models, that a very small amount of flexibility can be surprisingly powerful in improving performance, both in terms of queueing delay and system capacity. However, to harness the benefits of flexibility, one should carefully architect network topologies, scheduling policies, and how to properly leverage (predictive) information in making dynamic resource allocation decisions. In this talk, I will discuss stochastic models and analytical results that provide interesting insights on these challenges.

管科系系列讲座第186期预告

时间：2017年5月23日（周二）13:30

地点：思源楼524

主持人： 冯天俊副教授

主讲嘉宾：Enno Siemsen, Procter & Gamble Bascom Professor, Operations & Information Management, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Title：A Behavioral Perspective on Inventory Sharing

Abstract: Effective transshipment of inventory is a way to take advantage of aggregation effects in decentralized inventory systems. Previous research in the inventory sharing area has been mostly analytical in nature, focused on optimal stocking and sharing decisions and the coordinating role of transfer prices. We examine inventory sharing effectiveness from a behavioral perspective. Four conditions are necessary to create an effective inventory sharing system: adequate inventory in the system, sufficient requests for sharing, reasonable transshipments upon requests, and responsiveness of initial orders to the transfer price. Using behavioral experiments, we examined these four conditions. Our results show that without a carefully designed system, inventory sharing may be neither effective nor a route to enhanced profitability. In general, decision makers do not stock enough to benefit from sharing, and the opportunity to share inventory leads to an even further reduction in the initial inventory stock. Further, decision makers tend not to react to the transfer price unless inventory is not transparent in the supply chain. In addition, decision makers are more likely to under-request inventory, leading to reduced demand signal processing among decision makers. Finally, we provide evidence that by reducing inventory transparency in the system and providing decision support, inventory sharing can become effective and increase profitability for participants.

管理科学系

2017-5-3