Supply chain delivery performance: Points of view of a supplier and a buyer

The need for performance measurement and evaluation in supply chain management is well recognized in the literature. The timeliness of delivery is a key concern to customers and numerous empirical studies have documented the importance that on time delivery plays in the operation of the supply chain. Supply chain delivery performance models are based on the concept of the delivery window, which is defined as the difference between the earliest acceptable delivery date and the latest acceptable delivery date. In the dissertation supply chain delivery performance is evaluated from a supplier's and a buyer's prospective. The research introduces a concept of the optimal positioning of the delivery window in a serial supply chain. Optimally positioning the delivery window minimizes the expected penalty cost due to early and late delivery. The conditions for the optimal position of the delivery window are derived for the general form of a delivery time distribution. The research herein addresses strategies of delivery performance improvement using a cost based delivery performance model and evaluates the effect of different parameters on the expected penalty cost. An understanding of these analytical properties provides a strong foundation for identifying and integrating strategies to improve delivery performance. Furthermore, we investigate how the timeliness of the delivery will affect the inventory cost structure of a buyer in a two stage supply chain. From the perspective of the buyer, untimely delivery can impact inventory holding and stockout costs. We formulate the supply chain delivery window problem as a stochastic model with three possible delivery outcomes (early, on time, and late delivery) and integrate this feature with an inventory model with two levels of storage (owned warehouse and rented warehouse). This comparison and supporting analysis bridges existing gaps found in the literature and contributes to linking and coordinating the delivery and inventory sub processes within supply chains. Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed