International Journal of Production Economics最新文献

The intelligent production line configuration strategy

IF 9.8 1区工程技术 Q1 ENGINEERING, INDUSTRIAL

International Journal of Production Economics

Pub Date : 2025-04-18 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109647

Qiguo Gong , Yanyu Zhang , Guohui Chen , Hui Wang

Establishing an intelligent production line with high flexibility entails significant expenses, thereby strategic decision-making regarding the utilization of labor flexibility in the production line configuration becomes crucial for the success of a smart factory. This study considers two predominant production line configuration strategies in a production environment characterized by multi-variety and small-batch orders: (1) a double-line configuration strategy, where a fully automated intelligent production line focuses on producing relatively standardized products, while a manual production line is dedicated to crafting personalized products. We obtain optimal work allocation under this strategy. (2) a line-changeover configuration strategy, characterized by a single flexible production line where machine-driven tasks are automatically executed. Manual intervention is only required during line changeovers and setups between different product types. A comparative cost analysis between these two configuration strategies reveals that, for production batch size exceeding a batch threshold, the line-changeover strategy outperforms the double-line strategy. Moreover, if a square root rule is satisfied, the line-changeover strategy consistently outperforms the double-line strategy. Notably, investments directed towards setup reduction prove instrumental in reducing production costs and reducing the batch threshold, thereby amplifying the advantages of the line-changeover strategy. The future comparative advantage of these two configuration strategies is contingent upon ongoing technological developments.

建立一条具有高柔性的智能生产线需要大量费用，因此在生产线配置中利用劳动力柔性的战略决策对智能工厂的成功至关重要。本研究考虑了多品种、小批量订单生产环境下的两种主流生产线配置策略：(1) 双线配置策略，即一条全自动智能生产线专注于生产相对标准化的产品，而一条人工生产线则致力于生产个性化产品。在这种策略下，我们获得了最优的工作分配。(2) 换线配置策略，即一条柔性生产线自动执行机器驱动的任务。只有在生产线转换和不同产品类型之间的设置时才需要人工干预。对这两种配置策略进行的成本比较分析表明，当生产批量超过一个批量阈值时，换线配置策略优于双线配置策略。此外，如果满足平方根规则，生产线转换策略始终优于双线策略。值得注意的是，对减少设置的投资有助于降低生产成本和减少批量临界值，从而扩大了生产线转换策略的优势。这两种配置策略的未来比较优势取决于当前的技术发展。

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引用次数: 0

Dynamic product quality improvement using social media data and competitor-based Kano model

IF 9.8 1区工程技术 Q1 ENGINEERING, INDUSTRIAL

International Journal of Production Economics

Pub Date : 2025-04-17 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109645

Lu Zheng , Lin Sun , Zhen He , Shuguang He

Recently, social media data have emerged as an important information source for product quality improvement. Previous studies utilize social media data and the Kano model to delineate opportunities for product quality enhancement. However, a favorable performance appraisal from customers does not guarantee that the product gains a competitive edge over its rivals. Performance evaluation may be inaccurate and biased without comparing the product to its competitors. Moreover, few studies research dynamic quality attributes and propose strategies for dynamic quality enhancement. In this study, we propose a dynamic approach to improving product quality using social media data. Firstly, we categorize social media data into texts with positive, negative, and neutral sentiments. By considering competitors, we then dynamically estimate product performance and customer satisfaction using these texts, Dynamic Topic Models, and sentiment analysis. Secondly, we cluster product features into diverse quality attributes using our proposed competitor-based Kano model. Finally, we use a case study of laptops for validation. Experimental results not only validate the lifecycle of quality attributes (changing from indifferent to attractive attributes, which turn to one-directional/must-be attributes) proposed by extant research, but also reveal new trajectories of quality attributes (fluctuating among one-directional, must-be, and attractive attributes). Additionally, the comparison with baseline methods manifests that our method provides manufacturers with timely decision support to improve product quality, formulate product development strategies, and enhance product competitiveness.

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引用次数: 0

Can sustainable supply chain sustain supplier's operational efficiency?

IF 9.8 1区工程技术 Q1 ENGINEERING, INDUSTRIAL

International Journal of Production Economics

Pub Date : 2025-04-15 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109640

Cherry Yi Zhang, Jinyan Ji, Tiantian Zhang

This study, based on supply chain-linked panel data of U.S. listed manufacturing firms from 1991 to 2018, examines how customers with environmental and social (ES) commitments affect the operational efficiency of dependent suppliers. An overlooked aspect in the literature is how operational concessions—such as extended trade credit terms and excess inventory holding—naturally emerge as a way for suppliers to balance power asymmetries in relationships with major customers. These concessions act as equilibrium outcomes that sustain partnerships but burden suppliers. Addressing this gap, we explore how ES commitments from major customers shift this equilibrium, reducing the need for suppliers to offer long trade credit and hold excess inventory, thereby improving efficiency through a shorter operating cycle. Our results show that suppliers working with ES-committed customers achieve shorter operating cycles, driven by reductions in both inventory days and receivable days. Additionally, suppliers leverage ES performance to signal credibility, reducing their reliance on long credit terms as assurance. During the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath, suppliers reciprocated the goodwill of ES-committed customers by offering longer credit terms, fostering resilience and mutual support within the supply chain during financial stress. These findings contribute to the literature on sustainable supply chain management by showing how ES commitments foster trust-based partnerships that enhance long-term supply chain resilience across both stable and crisis periods.

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引用次数: 0

Sustainable development of PV projects based on a text-analytic decision-making framework

IF 9.8 1区工程技术 Q1 ENGINEERING, INDUSTRIAL

International Journal of Production Economics

Pub Date : 2025-04-15 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109610

Xiaoyu Ma, Chunguang Bai

The vigorous development of new energy sources, such as photovoltaic (PV) systems, is essential to achieving the goals of “Carbon Neutrality and Carbon Peak.” Clarifying the inherent logic of sustainable PV development and effectively evaluating and optimizing PV projects are urgent priorities. To address this, the study proposes a data-driven framework for the sustainable development of PV systems. First, topic modeling is employed to analyze existing PV research, identify mainstream topics, and outline the critical pathways for sustainable development. Second, focusing on a primary pathway, a two-stage decision-making model based on text mining is introduced to evaluate and optimize the target PV system. In the first stage, text mining is integrated with an adaptive multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm to generate Pareto solutions across three objectives: lifecycle cost, loss of power supply probability, and global warming potential of greenhouse gas emissions. In the second stage, stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis is applied to select the optimal Pareto solution. The framework is validated through its application to a real-world case involving PV carport configuration in Chengdu, China. This study not only establishes an objective and comprehensive research paradigm for analyzing PV system sustainability through text analysis but also provides decision-making references for researchers and industry practitioners to better understand the development logic and pathways for sustainable PV system configuration.

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引用次数: 0

Robust two-stage optimisation in biomass supply chains 生物质供应链的稳健两阶段优化

IF 9.8 1区工程技术 Q1 ENGINEERING, INDUSTRIAL

International Journal of Production Economics

Pub Date : 2025-04-14 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109623

Péter Egri, Tamás Kis

Increasing waste utilisation is an important goal of the circular economy initiative. This paper focuses on biomass supply chains, where the waste has several utilisation possibilities, each with different quality requirements. The biomass has to be distributed among the recycling facilities, where it can be processed by different technologies, and finally, the products are transported to the customers. Due to the uncertainties in the recycling processes, the quality of the products become known only after processing the waste. Thus the basic challenge is to find a robust facility and technology selection plan, which performs well, even if some quality issues are expected. This paper introduces a novel robust optimisation model of the waste utilisation problem and presents a solution algorithm using a customised column-and-constraint generation approach.

引用次数: 0

A divergent two-echelon spare part inventory system with lost sales and compound Poisson demand

IF 9.8 1区工程技术 Q1 ENGINEERING, INDUSTRIAL

International Journal of Production Economics

Pub Date : 2025-04-11 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109625

Chaaben Kouki , Lama Moussawi-Haidar , Mohamad Y. Jaber

This paper investigates a spare parts inventory system in a two-echelon supply chain following a continuous review process. The first echelon has a central warehouse, while the second has multiple local warehouses. The demand for spare parts at the local warehouses follows a Compound Poisson Process. A base-stock policy controls inventory in the supply chain with demand satisfied within a pre-determined waiting time threshold. Failure to do so will result in lost sales, which happens when stockouts occur at both echelons and there is no inventory in transit. The lead time at the central warehouse is a random variable following a general distribution. Empirical evidence suggests that the Compound Poisson Process provides a more accurate fit for the lumpy and intermittent demand of spare parts compared to the Poisson process, which is the approach often adopted in the literature. This paper follows a queueing network modeling approach to find the inventory performance measures in closed-form when the lead time at the central warehouse follows a general distribution. We minimize supply chain costs and improve performance by determining the optimum inventory levels at the central and local warehouses. We simulated our model and found that the numerical results deviated by a maximum of 5.84% error compared to the results from closed-form expressions.

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引用次数: 0

Orchestrating governance reconfiguration of inter-organizational project networks to address coordination failures

IF 9.8 1区工程技术 Q1 ENGINEERING, INDUSTRIAL

International Journal of Production Economics

Pub Date : 2025-04-10 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109637

Ilias Krystallis , Jas Kalra , Giorgio Locatelli

The alignment of governance forms and coordination performance within inter-organizational project networks (IOPN) is increasingly studied in operations and supply chain management literature. Despite growing acknowledgement of the adaptive nature of network governance, the mechanisms and process by which governance form is reconfigured are less understood. This study addresses this gap through a longitudinal, ethnographic study of the UK Grand Challenges (UKGC) program, focusing on how a network orchestrator, as a central entity, dynamically reconfigured governance to reduce coordination failures. We found that the orchestrator employed both upward and downward influencing mechanisms to guide the reconfiguration from shared governance to lead-organization governance mode through a three-phased process: (1) explicit manifestation of dissatisfaction with existing governance form, (2) emergence of new governance form, and (3) promoting and operationalizing the new governance form. We further found that the orchestrator's actions in reconfiguring governance form contributed to improved coordination outcomes, particularly in complex, multi-stakeholder project networks. This study extends the understanding of the dynamic aspect of network governance and offers practical insights for managers aiming to enhance coordination of IOPN through intentional governance reconfiguration.

在运营和供应链管理文献中，对组织间项目网络（IOPN）内治理形式的调整和协调绩效的研究越来越多。尽管人们越来越认识到网络治理的适应性，但对治理形式重组的机制和过程却了解不多。本研究通过对英国大挑战（UKGC）项目的纵向人种学研究来弥补这一空白，重点研究网络协调者作为中心实体如何动态地重新配置治理以减少协调失败。我们发现，协调者同时采用了向上和向下的影响机制，通过以下三个阶段的过程引导从共同治理到领导组织治理模式的重组：（1）明确表达对现有治理形式的不满；（2）新治理形式的出现；（3）新治理形式的推广和运作。我们进一步发现，协调人在重新配置治理形式方面的行动有助于改善协调结果，尤其是在复杂的多利益相关方项目网络中。本研究拓展了对网络治理动态方面的理解，并为旨在通过有意的治理重构来加强 IOPN 协调的管理者提供了实用的见解。

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引用次数: 0

Bridging uncertainty: A data-driven DRO approach for correcting censored demand in newsvendor problems

IF 9.8 1区工程技术 Q1 ENGINEERING, INDUSTRIAL

International Journal of Production Economics

Pub Date : 2025-04-10 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109626

Xiaoli Su , Zhe Yuan , Chenghu Yang , Evren Sahin , Jie Xiong

When dealing with short-life cycle products, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) commonly confront challenges stemming from limited local censored demand data. This often leads to a lack of comprehensive understanding of demand distribution and can result in suboptimal order decisions. To address this issue, we introduce a data-driven newsvendor framework that combines a novel cost-driven data correction procedure with distributionally robust optimization (CDDC-DRO). With cost minimization objectives, the proposed procedure integrates local censored demand data and external demand information to adaptively generate high-value improved censored datasets, while circumventing reliance on static correlations. Furthermore, we consider the granularities of external demand information and propose three DRO-based data correction strategies to effectively reduce demand censoring. Tests on both simulated and actual data indicate that the CDDC-DRO procedure adaptively corrects censored data based on demand characteristics and cost structures, thereby eliminating significant errors induced by demand censoring and improving the precision and robustness of order decisions. The correction degree of the improved censored datasets dynamically depends on cost structure. A high degree of data correction is employed under high critical ratios, whereas a minimal correction degree is applied under low critical ratios. In response to the significant negative impacts of demand censoring, SMEs prefer to implement the DRO-based data correction strategy with finer-grained external demand information. This strategy enhances correction capabilities while minimizing variations in decision accuracy. Even when finer-grained external demand information is unavailable, SMEs are able to make well-informed order decisions using the DRO-based data correction strategy with local censored demand data.

中小型企业（SMEs）在处理生命周期较短的产品时，通常会面临因本地需求数据有限而产生的挑战。这往往会导致对需求分布缺乏全面了解，从而做出次优订单决策。为解决这一问题，我们引入了数据驱动的新闻供应商框架，该框架结合了新颖的成本驱动数据校正程序和分布稳健优化（CDDC-DRO）。以成本最小化为目标，所提出的程序整合了本地删减需求数据和外部需求信息，以适应性地生成高价值的改进删减数据集，同时避免依赖静态相关性。此外，我们还考虑了外部需求信息的粒度，并提出了三种基于 DRO 的数据校正策略，以有效减少需求删减。对模拟数据和实际数据的测试表明，CDDC-DRO 程序能根据需求特征和成本结构对删减数据进行自适应修正，从而消除了需求删减引起的重大误差，提高了订单决策的精确性和稳健性。改进后的删减数据集的校正程度动态地取决于成本结构。在临界比率较高的情况下，采用较高的数据校正度，而在临界比率较低的情况下，则采用最低的校正度。针对需求删减带来的巨大负面影响，中小企业更倾向于利用更精细的外部需求信息实施基于 DRO 的数据校正策略。这种策略既能增强修正能力，又能最大限度地减少决策准确性的变化。即使无法获得更精细的外部需求信息，中小企业也能利用基于 DRO 的数据校正策略和本地删减需求数据做出明智的订单决策。

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引用次数: 0

Impact of cost structure and cannibalisation on live streaming pricing strategies

IF 9.8 1区工程技术 Q1 ENGINEERING, INDUSTRIAL

International Journal of Production Economics

Pub Date : 2025-04-09 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109619

Le Wang , Li Zhou , Hing Kai Chan , Tijun Fan

Live streaming, as a new online selling channel, has gained popularity in recent years. However, introducing live streaming does not necessarily enhance the profitability of a brand. Strategic success hinges on accurately assessing when to introduce live streaming and crafting a reasonable pricing strategy. In essence, the introduction of live streaming complicates consumers' purchase decisions and intensifies channel cannibalisation from three standpoints: consumers' perceived value for products, consumers' purchasing cost among channels, and pricing strategy of the live streaming channel. Considering these factors, we construct models without and with live streaming and examine two pricing strategies, i.e., low pricing in the live streaming channel (low pricing strategy), and unified pricing in the live streaming and online direct channels (unified pricing strategy), to analyse the strategic integration of live streaming for dual-channel brands, thereby facilitating channel management and pricing strategies. The findings reveal that (1) brands should avoid introducing live streaming when consumers' cost of purchasing through the offline channel is either excessively high or low, opting instead to introduce it when the offline purchasing cost is moderate. (2) If consumers' cost of purchasing through the live streaming channel is low, the brand should implement the low pricing strategy; otherwise, adopting the unified pricing strategy becomes more appropriate. (3) The live streaming channel price after its introduction is higher than the online direct channel price without the introduction of live streaming. (4) When the brand introduces live streaming with the optimal pricing strategy, it not only boosts the brand's revenue but also enhances consumer surplus, achieving a win-win outcome for both the brand and consumers.

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引用次数: 0

Internal reductions or carbon offset: How to achieve triple benefits in a consumer market with environmental concerns

IF 9.8 1区工程技术 Q1 ENGINEERING, INDUSTRIAL

International Journal of Production Economics

Pub Date : 2025-04-04 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2025.109624

Xue Wang, Deqing Ma, Jinsong Hu, Yun Liu

Green and low-carbon production and operation methods have steadily emerged as one of the primary determinants of the enterprise's competitiveness in a consumer market concerned with environmental issues. This study examines a company that manufactures a single product and has the option of internal reductions only or purchasing carbon offsets along with internal reductions to reduce the product's carbon footprint. We developed a model to characterize the dynamic properties of the product's carbon footprint. The study finds that the consumer's level of environmental concern and the price of carbon offset are the main considerations for the firm's decision to develop carbon reduction methods. Interestingly, internal reductions and the purchasing carbon offset are not simple substitutions. When the price of carbon offset is extremely low, the firm purchases carbon offsets instead spur greater internal reductions. Another counterintuitive finding is that the firm with higher initial greenhouse gases from the product has relatively lower mitigation efforts. In addition, we obtain conditions under which the firm realizes economic, social, and environmental benefits from carbon footprint reduction methods. Finally, we extend our analysis to a scenario of duopoly competition and obtain similar conclusions.

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引用次数: 0