Store-assistance management for a supply chain with consumer return under consignment contract

Abstract

In this paper, the strategy problems of pricing and store-assistance service investment are investigated for a supply chain with consumer return, where the considered supply chain under consignment contract consists of a single manufacturer and a single retailer. Firstly, we use differential equation to model the evolution of store-assistance service level and depict the effect of store-assistance service level on the return rate. By applying two-stage game, both optimal pricing and store-assistance service strategies are obtained based on the presented optimal control model. Subsequently, the committed dynamic consignment price contract is designed to coordinate and improve the performance of supply chain. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the impacts of the effectiveness of store-assistance service level and decay rate on the feasible region of corresponding contract.