Models for managing green product and process innovations.

摘要

The focus of the dissertation is to integrate Operations Management and Environmental Management, the two functional fields that are of crucial importance for the prosperity and welfare of the human society in the twenty-first century. The current trend of production and operations management, which emphasizes the management of the entire supply chain from raw materials extraction, to manufacturing, to the delivery of final products to customers, presents new opportunities in preventing and resolving the problems of environmental pollution through product and process innovations. In the dissertation, we develop decision and simulation models for managing green product and process innovations. In the model of green product development, we analyze a firm's strategies regarding the number of products introduced and their respective prices and quality levels, and compare the economic and environmental impacts of these strategies. The analytical results show that green product development and stricter environmental standards do not necessarily benefit the environment. In the model of green process management, we analyze a firm's decisions of production planning and inventory control under an uncertain environmental limit. The analytical results show that the firm will use an optimal policy that leads to higher planned production in order to deal with both demand and environmental uncertainties. In addition, we use simulation analysis to develop a decision support system for analyzing the quantitative properties of green process management. The simulation results show that the optimal policy that requires higher production may also result in higher stock levels throughout the entire planning horizon, which increases the environmental risks associated with the storage of certain toxic semi or final products. Based on the analytical results derived from the models of green product development and process management, we propose guidelines that can be used by both operations managers and environmental policy makers. The objective of the research is twofold. For the private sector, the analytical results can be used to guide today's managers in dealing with the increasingly important environmental issues in supply chain management. For the public sector, the research can provide critical insights that can be used to manage and regulate industries on environment-related issues.