Conditional Lead-Time Flexibility in an Assemble-to-Order System

Problem definition: We introduce and formalize a concept termed conditional lead-time flexibility (CLF), which refers to the industry practice where a manufacturer requests that its upstream suppliers dynamically adjust the pipeline orders’ remaining lead times. Over a finite horizon, an assemble-to-order manufacturer makes joint decisions on inventory replenishment and lead-time adjustment to minimize the total discounted expected cost. Methodology/results: The problem is formulated as a multiperiod dynamic programming with an enlarged state space to track the adjustable pipeline orders. The replenishment and lead-time adjustment decisions are made sequentially in each period. The analysis reveals that (i) the optimal cost-to-go function is both convex and additively separable, that (ii) both the optimal replenishment and lead-time adjustment decisions follow general base-stock policies, and that (iii) the convexity and additive separability allow us to perform a derivative analysis on the optimality equations and design an efficient algorithm. Managerial implications: Using real industry data, we numerically find that (i) CLF achieves notable cost savings over a wide range of parameters, that (ii) the value of CLF comes from both the order expediting and deferring, and that (iii) CLF outperforms dual sourcing when the unit adjustment cost is less than 40% of the unit ordering cost from the express source. Our findings underscore the importance of CLF. Funding: T. Deng acknowledges financial support from the National Key Research and Development Program of China [Grant 2022YFB3305602] and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [Grant 72188101]. Supplemental Material: The electronic companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2023.0520 .