Issue |
RAIRO-Oper. Res.
Volume 57, Number 1, January-February 2023
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 121 - 143 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/ro/2022207 | |
Published online | 17 January 2023 |
Optimal pricing, production, and intelligentization policies for smart, connected products under two-level trade credit
1 Department of Industrial Management, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan
2 Artificial Intelligence for Operations Management Research Center, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan
3 Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
4 Department of Business Administration, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan
5 Institute of Innovation and Circular Economy, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan
6 Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Surabaya, Indonesia
* Corresponding author: yctsao@mail.ntust.edu.tw
Received:
24
November
2021
Accepted:
22
November
2022
The development of technologies such as the Internet of Things has transformed traditional physical products into smart connected products (SCPs) that combine hardware, sensors, data storage, microprocessors, software, and connectivity in myriad ways. SCPs raise a new set of strategic choices for creating value and pricing products, how relationships with business partners such as channels are redefined, and what role companies should play as industry boundaries are expanded. This study develops an inventory model that considers optimal pricing, production, and intelligent policies for SCPs. In this model, customer demand is assumed to increase as the selling price decreases and the effort to improve product intelligence (i.e., intelligent effort) increases. In addition, a two-level trade credit is included in the SCPs supply chain channel. The manufacturer often receives a permissible delay-in-payment (trade credit) from the supplier while also offering a delayed payment to end customers to attract more sales. Trade credit is particularly important for SCPs as it can act as a payment plan to reduce the product’s price barrier. This study aims to determine the optimal selling price, lot size, and level of intelligent effort while maximizing the manufacturer’s profit under a two-level trade credit. The optimal solution is clarified, numerical examples are provided, and a sensitivity analysis is performed to illustrate the theoretical results and solution approach. The results reveal that considering the level of intelligent effort as a decision can benefit the manufacturer. Notably, as the intelligent effort coefficient increases by 55%, the total profit increases by 65.8%.
Mathematics Subject Classification: 90B05
Key words: Inventory / smart / connected products / pricing / lot-sizing / trade credit
© The authors. Published by EDP Sciences, ROADEF, SMAI 2023
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.