讲座题目：A Robust Approach to Optimizing Procurement Contracts

讲座时间：2018年6月19日，下午2:00-3:30

讲座地点：主教615会议室

讲座主讲人：Erick (Zhaolin) Li，悉尼大学商学院Senior Lecturer

主要研究方向包括供应链管理、运营管理与其他领域交叉问题，论文发表在ManagementScience, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production & Operations Management, Decision Sciences, European Journal of Operations Research等国际顶级管理学期刊。

Abstract: We apply a robust optimization approach to designing procurement contract menus when the buyer has limited information regarding the distribution of the supplier's cost. We extend the classic screening model by applying the max-min criterion and proposing a joint optimization approach to finding the robust solution in the presence of different partial information. First, when only the median production cost is known, the robust optimal contract menus are based on a classic two-type model. Second, when only the average production cost is known, the buyer's ex-post profit is piece-wise linear with respect to the supplier's type. Third, when the mean and standard deviation of the supplier's cost are known, the buyer's ex-post profit function is piece-wise quadratic with respect to the supplier's type. Our results indicate that the buyer's best-guaranteed profit is a U-shaped function with respect to the variance of the supplier's production cost. If the supplier's cost is positively skewed, the information of the median production cost could be more valuable than that of the mean production cost.