Demand and supply uncertainties are the two challenges of any supply chain. Supply uncertainty can happen if suppliers’ production systems generate defective units. Demand uncertainty also indicates that the demand fluctuates over time. Suppliers may share the risk of uncertain demand with buyers by agreeing to buy back unsold inventory at the end of the season. Also, a multi-sourcing scenario can be an effective strategy to handle both uncertainties. We consider in this paper an inventory problem where a buyer purchases an item from multiple suppliers. The suppliers may have limited production capacity, produce defective units, and allow the buyer to return unsold units at the end of the season with a buyback price. To determine the order quantities from the suppliers, the buyer must evaluate them based on wholesale price, buyback price, and defective rate. We first develop a solution algorithm to solve the problem and then provide some managerial insights for both the buyers and the suppliers.

中文翻译：

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退货政策供需不确定下的供应商选择与订单分配问题


需求和供应的不确定性是任何供应链面临的两大挑战。如果供应商的生产系统产生有缺陷的产品，则可能会出现供应不确定性。需求不确定性还表明需求随着时间的推移而波动。供应商可以通过同意在季末回购未售出的库存来与买家分担需求不确定的风险。此外，多源场景可以成为应对这两种不确定性的有效策略。我们在本文中考虑了买家从多个供应商处购买商品的库存问题。供应商的生产能力可能有限，生产有缺陷的产品，并允许买方在季末以回购价格退回未售出的产品。为了确定向供应商的订单数量，买方必须根据批发价、回购价和缺陷率对其进行评估。我们首先开发解决问题的算法来解决问题，然后为买家和供应商提供一些管理见解。