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Multiechelon Procurement and Distribution Policies for Traded Commodities

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  • Ankur Goel

    (Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106)

  • Genaro J. Gutierrez

    (McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712)

Abstract

We consider a firm that procures and distributes a commodity from spot and forward markets under randomly fluctuating prices; the commodity is distributed downstream to a set of nonhomogeneous retailers to satisfy random demand. We formulate a model that allows one to compute approximate, but near optimal, procurement and distribution policies for this system, and we explore the value of the commodity's market in providing managers with (a) additional flexibility in procurement and (b) information on price dynamics generated through the trading of futures contracts. Our results indicate that the presence of the commodity market and the information that it conveys may lead to significant reductions in inventory-related costs; however, to obtain these benefits, both the spot procurement flexibility and the term structure of prices generated by the commodity market must be incorporated in the formulation of the operating policy. Managerial insights on the procurement strategy as a function of variability in prices and demand are also discussed. This paper was accepted by John Birge, focused issue editor.

Suggested Citation

  • Ankur Goel & Genaro J. Gutierrez, 2011. "Multiechelon Procurement and Distribution Policies for Traded Commodities," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(12), pages 2228-2244, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:57:y:2011:i:12:p:2228-2244
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.1110.1430
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    6. Youhua (Frank) Chen & Weili Xue & Jian Yang, 2013. "Technical Note---Optimal Inventory Policy in the Presence of a Long-Term Supplier and a Spot Market," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 61(1), pages 88-97, February.
    7. Xu, Jinpeng & Feng, Gengzhong & Jiang, Wei & Wang, Shouyang, 2015. "Optimal procurement of long-term contracts in the presence of imperfect spot market," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 42-52.
    8. John R. Birge, 2015. "OM Forum—Operations and Finance Interactions," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 17(1), pages 4-15, February.
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    10. Niu, Baozhuang & Chu, Lap-Keung & Ni, Jian & Wang, Junwei, 2018. "Buy now and price later: Supply contracts with time-consistent mean–variance financial hedgingAuthor-Name: Li, Qiang," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 268(2), pages 582-595.
    11. Robert N. Boute & Jan A. Van Mieghem, 2015. "Global Dual Sourcing and Order Smoothing: The Impact of Capacity and Lead Times," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(9), pages 2080-2099, September.
    12. Fan, Mengli & Xing, Wei & Huang, Yi, 2023. "Joint forward contract negotiation: The role of B2B procurement platforms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
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    14. Park, Seung Jae, 2018. "Swapping inventory between competing firms," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 26-46.
    15. Secomandi, Nicola & Seppi, Duane J., 2014. "Real Options and Merchant Operations of Energy and Other Commodities," Foundations and Trends(R) in Technology, Information and Operations Management, now publishers, vol. 6(3-4), pages 161-331, July.
    16. Nadarajah, Selvaprabu & Secomandi, Nicola, 2023. "A review of the operations literature on real options in energy," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 309(2), pages 469-487.
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