this study aims to minimize the total cost of a four-echelon supply chain including suppliers, an assembler, distributers, and retailers. the total cost consists of purchasing raw materials from the suppliers by the assembler, assembling the final product, materials transportation from the suppliers to the assembler, product transportation from the assembler to the distributors, product transpo...

In recent years, performance-based contracting (PBC) has emerged as an e¤ective means to manage relationships with suppliers who provide services for maintenances of high-valued products. It has been documented that PBC promotes improvement of product reliability, a key determinant of product performance and overall cost. However, nontrivial challenges exist in a typical supply chain where mult...

Along with increasing servitization of business, more and more companies today are shifting from selling only products to suffering integrated and customized products and services that deliver value in use. This change reflects, on one hand, the changing strategies of suppliers and their efforts to stay competitive in the market; on the other hand, it also reflects a change in the attitude of t...

Hospitals and hospital-based physicians enter into a variety of agreements. Given the recent advisory memorandum from the Inspector General of Health and Human Services and a recent administrative decision, these arrangements may violate the Medicare Anti-Kickback statute.