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Ralf Seifert

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Related publications (57)

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Benefits of working capital sharing in supply chains

Ralf Seifert

Supply chain finance and working capital management are important avenues to reduce supply chain costs. Small suppliers may not have sufficient working capital to finance their operations and efficiently supply their customers. We develop a model that capt ...

Palgrave Macmillan2017

Optimizing omnichannel assortments and inventory provisions under the multichannel attraction model

Ralf Seifert, Andrey Vasilyev

Assortment optimization presents a complex challenge for retailers, as it depends on numerous decision factors. Changes in assortment can result in demand redistribution with multi-layered consequences. This complexity is even more pronounced for omnichann ...

2025

Assortment optimization using an attraction model in an omnichannel environment

Ralf Seifert, Andrey Vasilyev, Sebastian Maier

Making assortment decisions is becoming an increasingly difficult task for many retailers worldwide as they implement omnichannel initiatives. Discrete choice modeling lies at the core of this challenge, yet existing models do not sufficiently account for ...

2023

A test of inventory models with permissible delay in payment

Ralf Seifert, Olov Isaksson

Contrary to the long-standing view in the finance literature that firms should maximise payment delays, research in operations management suggests that long payment delays can be suboptimal. In this study, we reconcile these two views by applying a seconda ...

2017

Carbon footprint and responsiveness trade-offs in supply chain network design

Ralf Seifert, Joana Maria Comas Marti

Concern related to sustainability and greenhouse gases has grown among citizens as well as firms, which are increasingly committing to carbon emission reduction targets. However, firms' emissions come from direct and indirect sources, and from the differen ...

2015

Assessing the Comprehensiveness of Supply Chain Environmental Strategies

Ralf Seifert, Joana Maria Comas Marti

As environmental awareness grows, firms are expected to expand the scope of their environmental strategies beyond organisational boundaries and to address more comprehensively environmental issues in their supply chains and product life cycles. Drawing on ...

Wiley-Blackwell2013

Integrating Direct and Indirect Sales Channels Under Decentralized Decision Making

Ralf Seifert

Many manufacturers have started to use virtual stores as a direct distribution channel in addition to their existing indirect retail channels. These companies must now decide how to integrate these channels. The alternatives are to operate dedicated distri ...

2006

On the optimal frequency of multiple generation product introductions

Ralf Seifert, Shuangqing Liao

This paper considers a firm that introduces multiple generations of a product to the market at regular intervals. We assume that the firm has only a single production generation in the market at any time. To maximize the total profit within a given plannin ...

2015

A three-echelon supply chain with price-only contracts and sub-supply chain coordination

Ralf Seifert, Shuangqing Liao

This paper studies coordination in a three-echelon supply chain and examines the impact of sub-supply chain coordination (sub-coordination). Our analysis is based on the price-only contracts that are commonly used in practice. The model is of the newsvendo ...

2012

The value of updated information on future price behaviour

Ralf Seifert, Shuangqing Liao

This paper studies the value of information on future price behaviour. We consider a one-period inventory modelling framework with random period length and two order opportunities. The selling price is determined dynamically and the demand is price-sensiti ...

Taylor & Francis Ltd2014

Roles of inventory and reserve capacity in mitigating supply chain disruption risk

Ralf Seifert, Florian Christopher Matthias Lücker

2018

Benefits and Scepticism of Ecolabels as Accountability Mechanism

Ralf Seifert, Joana Maria Comas Marti

Environmental labelling is an accountability mechanism for firms to satisfy growing demands to prove that value chains are sustainably managed. Although the large variety of ecolabels available today can be interpreted as a sign of their success, it is ove ...

Emerald2012

A Machine Learning-based Framework for Forecasting Sales of New Products With Short Life Cycles Using Deep Neural Networks

Ralf Seifert, Yara Kayyali El Alem

Demand forecasting is becoming increasingly important as firms launch new products with short life cycles more frequently. This paper provides a framework based on state-of-the-art techniques that enables firms to use quantitative methods to forecast sales ...

2022

Modeling the Value of Updated Information on the Time of Price Decrease

Ralf Seifert

2006

Satisfying Customer Preferences via Mass Customization and Mass Production

Ralf Seifert

Two operational formats namely mass customization and mass production can be implemented to satisfy customer preference-based demand. The mass customization system consists of two stages: the initial build-to-stock phase and the final customize-to-order ph ...

2006

Mitigating Product Shortage Due to Disruptions in Multi-Stage Supply Chains

Ralf Seifert

We focus on the optimal use of risk mitigation inventory (RMI) and reserve capacity to manage disruption risk in serial multi-stage supply chains where product transformation occurs at each stage. We find that under reasonable conditions it is better to ho ...

2020

Building up Resilience in a Pharmaceutical Supply Chain through Inventory, Dual Sourcing and Agility Capacity

Ralf Seifert, Florian Christopher Matthias Lücker

This paper is inspired by a risk management problem faced by a leading pharmaceutical company. Key operational risk mitigation measures include Risk Mitigation Inventory (RMI), Dual Sourcing and Agility Capacity. We study the relationship between these thr ...

2017

Manufacturing Management in Process Industries: The Impact of Market Conditions and Capital Expenditure on Firm Performance

Ralf Seifert, Olov Isaksson, Philipp Urs Moser

2021

Why Do Companies Need Operational Flexibility to Achieve Sustainability at Source?

Ralf Seifert, Isik Bicer, Yara Kayyali El Alem

We analyze the environmental benefits of operational flexibility that emerge in the form of less product waste during the sourcing process by reducing overproduction. We consider three different options for operational flexibility: (1) lead-time reduction, ...

2022

The Quiet Supply Chain Revolution

Ralf Seifert, Richard Markoff

Looking back on recent supply chain disruptions, Richard Markoff and Ralf W. Seifert describe the current revolution in supply chain management. They illustrate how supply chain management is ever more integrated with overall business strategy, emphasizing ...

SAGE Publications2024