A PhD position: Optimization of Dynamic Pricing Issues in Manufacturing Industry (Coordination of Pr

PhD Thesis

Optimization of Dynamic Pricing Issues in Manufacturing Industry: Coordination of Pricing and Production Decisions

This PhD thesis aims to develop mathematical models and optimization methods to deal with the coordination between production operations and pricing decisions. It considers a dynamic approach of joint pricing and production decisions for a profit maximizing firm that produces multiple products for multiple markets.

The problem can be modelled as a mathematical program, incorporating different constraints such as: production capacity, inventory costs, setup costs, demand profile, market characteristics, etc. The demand for each product can be assumed to be continuous or discreet.

The expected contribution is to propose a solution approach which can be used for constant pricing, as well as dynamic pricing strategies. Furthermore, the solution approach should be more general and applicable for linear as well as nonlinear demand functions.

The proposed methods will be tested based on real world data issued from a manufacturer partner. Different problem instances, for different demand scenarios at different capacities are to be solved for optimal or near optimal prices for each strategy.

As it is clear from review of academic literature; there is a lack of decision-support systems that truly integrate the production/inventory and pricing decisions, especially for multi-product and multi-market problems.  We believe, this work makes valuable contributions in developing solution methodologies that can be incorporated in such decision support systems.

Key words: dynamic pricing, production optimization, mathematical programming, heuristic and metaheuristic methods, data analysis and clustering

Supervisors: Prof. Farouk Yalaoui (farouk.yalaoui@utt.fr) and Dr. Yassine Ouazene (yassine.ouazene@utt.fr)

Applicants must have a Master Degree (or equivalent) in Computer Sciences, Applied Mathematics or any related discipline. Applicants should demonstrate good programming skills and a deep knowledge in combinatorial optimization and integer programming.

The candidate will join the team of the Laboratory of Optimization of Industrial Systems (LOSI-ICD UMR CNRS 6281), University of Technology of Troyes (http://losi.utt.fr/fr/index.html).

Application:  Address to (yassine.ouazene@utt.fr and farouk.yalaoui@utt.fr) with the following documents: CV, cover letter, notes and ranking in the research master, recommendation letters (if possible)

Planned start: September 2017

Biblio:

S. E Kimes. Yield management: A tool for capacity-constrained service firms. Journal of Operations Management, 8(4), 348–363, 1989.

H. Shavandi M. Ahmadi, Joint pricing and rationing in a production system with two demand classes, European Journal of Industrial Engineering, 8 (6), 2014.

CA. Yano G. Dobson, Product offering, pricing, and make-to-stock/make to-order decisions with shared capacity, Production and Operations Management; 11(3), 293-312, 2002.

H.E. Romeijn J. Geunes, Y. Merzifonluolu, Capacitated procurement planning with price-sensitive demand and general concave-revenue functions, European Journal of Operational Research ; 194(2), 390–405, 2009.

K. Taaffe J. Geunes, H.E. Romeijn, Requirements planning with pricing and order selection flexibility, Operations Research, 54 (2), 394–401, 2006.