This book develops a modeling framework to analyze the problem of inventory management with alternative delivery times. The general context considered here is that a seller replenishes its inventory in fixed intervals and, between replenishments, allocates the limited inventory to satisfy customers who are both price and delivery-time sensitive. On the demand side, customers have heterogeneous delivery-time requirements and choose either spot or late delivery. This theoretical modeling captures the essence of real-world business practices such as the delivery time market segmentation strategy adopted by automobile dealerships in China and many other similar examples. The book focuses on the seller's optimal inventory replenishment and demand fulfillment policies, and our results provide managerial insights into the merits of flexible delivery-time options. Similar applications such as the group-buying mechanism are also examined. The main mathematical tool used in theoretical analysis is dynamic programming. This book is written for students, researchers, and practitioners in the areas of operations management and industrial engineering who are interested in understanding the rationale of flexible delivery times and designing successful applications.

Real problems are formulated into tractable mathematical models, which allow for an analysis of various approaches.

Attention is focused on solutions.

Provides a unified treatment of the models discussed, presents a critique of the existing results, and points out potential research directions.

This edited volume contains 16 research articles. It presents recent and pressing issues in stochastic processes, control theory, differential games, optimization, and their applications in finance, manufacturing, queueing networks, and climate control. One of the salient features is that the book is highly multi-disciplinary. The book is dedicated to Professor Suresh Sethi on the occasion of his 60th birthday, in view of his distinguished career.

This edited volume contains sixteen research articles and presents recent and pressing issues in stochastic processes, control theory, differential games, optimization, and their applications in finance, manufacturing, queueing networks, and climate control. One of the salient features is that the book is highly multi-disciplinary. It assembles experts from the fields of operations research, control theory and optimization, stochastic analysis, and financial engineering to review and substantially update the recent progress in these fields. Another distinct characteristic of the book is that all papers are motivated by applications in which optimization, control, and stochastics are inseparable. The book will be a timely addition to the literature and will be of interest to people working in the aforementioned fields.

Most importantly, this volume is dedicated to Professor Suresh Sethi on the occasion of his 60th birthday. In view of his fundamental contributions, his distinguished career, his substantial achievements, his influence on the areas of control theory and applications, operations research, and management science, and his dedication to the scientific community, a number of leading experts in the fields of optimization, control, and operation management, have contributed to this volume in honor of him.

Inventory and Supply Chain Decisions with Forecast Updates is concerned with the problems of inventory and supply chain decision-making with information updating over time. The models considered include inventory decisions with multiple sources and delivery modes, supply-contract design and evaluation, contracts with exercise price, volume-flexible contracts allowing for spot-market purchase decisions, and competitive supply chains. Real problems are formulated into tractable mathematical models, which allow for an analysis of various approaches, and provide insights for better supply chain management. The book provides a unified treatment of these models, presents a critique of the existing results, and points out potential research directions. Attention is focused on solutions - that is, inventory decisions prior and subsequent to information updates and the impact of the quality of information on these decisions.

Political, social and economic transformations have marked the 20 years since Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of China. To mark the historic handover, the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) at Nanyang Technological University invited experts from various fields to share their unique insights on the developments and impact of the last 20 years on Hong Kong and Singapore in a conference in Singapore.This volume is a compilation of speeches and presentations delivered at the conference by such heavyweight experts as Wang Gungwu, Antony Leung and Yang Jinlin on the road travelled and the paths ahead for both cities. This volume is an invaluable collection on Hong Kong and Singapore's past, present and future. Readers can enjoy the salient analysis delivered with great thought and reflective humour.