Papers for
supply chain managers
Papers whose findings have a practical use for this group, as judged from the abstract. Open a paper to read what it means in practice.
GenOR-Twin links operational logs with real time optimization decisions
GenOR-Twin: A Semantic Middleware for Integrating Operational Discourse with Mathematical Optimization
Abstract: We introduce GenOR-Twin, a neuro-symbolic framework that bridges the translation gap between unstructured operational logs and rigorous mathematical optimization. Our architecture uniquely positions Large Language Models as semantic translators rather than direct solvers, ensuring that the system retains the feasibility guarantees of exact combinatorial methods. { \color{red}We design a dynamic constraint injection mechanism (the runtime translation of qualitative disruption events into formal mathematical constraints) that allows the system to structurally modify the optimization problem's feasibility region in real-time based on qualitative human inputs. The resulting bidirectional coupling---where operational observations update the virtual model state and optimized decisions are reflected back into the Knowledge Graph---satisfies the synchronization requirement of a proper Digital Twin. The framework features an adaptive decision policy} that automatically selects between low-complexity schedule repair and full re-optimization by analyzing the available system slack. Finally, we demonstrate the generalization of this approach across six distinct optimization domains, {\color{red}turning static models into resilient systems that adapt to the operational uncertainty and variability of real-world environments.}
Buyers using AI reduce supplier environmental controversies
Buyer Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Environmental Governance and Supplier Environmental Controversies: An Organizational Information Processing and Signaling
Abstract: Environmental controversies in global supply chains pose significant risks for global buyers. This study examines whether overseas suppliers' exposure to buyers' artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled environmental governance reduces supplier environmental controversies. Drawing on organizational information processing theory and signaling theory, we investigate how suppliers' exposure to AI-enabled governance influences their environmental controversies and the institutional contingencies under which this effect varies. Using text analysis to measure buyer AI-enabled environmental governance, we analyze panel data on 2,505 suppliers of U.S.-listed firms across 41 countries from 2020 to 2024 with multidimensional fixed-effects models. We find that suppliers' exposure to buyer AI-enabled environmental governance is negatively associated with supplier environmental controversies in the following year. This negative relationship is stronger in supplier countries with higher AI readiness and regulatory quality. The study contributes to research on AI-enabled sustainability governance and sustainable supply chain risk management.
Cooperative integer programming games improve coalition stability and optimization
Cooperative Integer Programming Games: Core Stability and Optimal Coalition Structures
Abstract: We introduce cooperative integer programming games (CIPGs), in which agents pool budget constraints to accomplish indivisible tasks jointly and the characteristic function maps every coalition to the optimal value of a pooled integer program. Our goal is to identify an optimal coalition structure (OCS) and a stable one (OSCS). We derive a stability inequality that keeps each formed coalition in the Core with respect to itself, and present two mixed-integer OCS formulations, aggregated and disaggregated, proving that the disaggregated formulation is integer-equivalent yet yields a tighter LP relaxation. Building on the stability inequality we develop lifted stability cuts, several separation strategies inside a cutting-plane algorithm, an SCS-feasible primal heuristic that constructs warm starts with guaranteed stability, and a payoff-refinement step computing the Shapley value and the nucleolus of every formed coalition. On benchmark cooperative knapsack games, the method certifies optimality with up to 16 players and reaches MIP gaps below 1% at 30 players while evaluating 766 of the roughly $10^9$ coalition values.
Supplier placement predicts timing and amount of payable relief
Ex Ante Estimation of Payable Relief and Compensation Timing for Supplier Selection
Abstract: Supplier selection affects not only operating performance but also the payable network entered by a new obligation. This paper develops the Compensability Capacity Assessment (CCA), an ex ante buyer-supplier measure of expected gross payable relief and its likely timing. CPM provides the bounded structural kernel; concave CCA variants add bilateral invoice capacity. The measure is tested on 749,952 analytical invoices issued during 2012-2023, using frozen nine-month histories and future weekly, monthly, quarterly, semester, and annual windows. Cycle-restricted and path-enabled clearing are independent outcome-generating environments used to validate the measure, not technologies compared by this study. Across seven fully observed quarters in 2022-2023, log-CCA has a median Spearman correlation of 0.638 with future integrated relief; persistent relations carry 93.5% of relief, and the highest-scoring relation captures 92.5% of buyer-specific best relief. Predictability remains positive from week to year, with quarterly recalibration providing the best operating balance between signal, coverage, and timeliness. A timing analysis shows that, across the two validation environments, 89-91% of attributed relief occurs within seven days of invoice issue and 94-96% within thirty days, on average about sixteen days before contractual maturity. Log-CCA correlates 0.564 with thirty-day relief and 0.566 with relief-days. Its highest quartile has a 96.5% median probability of thirty-day compensation, compared with 57.6% in the lowest quartile. Conditional waiting-time prediction is weaker, so CCA should rank timely compensation opportunity rather than forecast an exact payment date. The findings link supplier placement, financial circularity, and working-capital exposure while motivating deployment, causal testing, and quarterly drift monitoring.