Article ID: | iaor20091283 |
Country: | Netherlands |
Volume: | 161 |
Issue: | 1 |
Start Page Number: | 149 |
End Page Number: | 170 |
Publication Date: | Jul 2008 |
Journal: | Annals of Operations Research |
Authors: | Boros Endre, Lei Lei, Zhao Yao, Zhong Hua |
Keywords: | supply & supply chains |
We consider the problem of coordinating the operations of two supply chain partners: a foreign shipping company and a domestic port. The two partners have conflicting business objectives, and the issue is to determine the optimal cycle time, by which the shipping company removes the empty containers from the domestic port, so that the joint profit of the two partners is maximized. The domestic port prefers a shorter cycle time to mitigate its empty container accumulation and land use problems, while the shipping company wishes a longer cycle time to save its expensive vessel capacities. We propose an iterative procedure to search for this optimal cycle time.