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Attention to energy efficiency is recently experiencing substantial growth. To overcome the several barriers currently existing that represent an obstacle to the successful implementation of the wide set of energy efficiency measures available, the cooperation among members of a supply chain offers a huge potential. In supply chains, in addition to the traditional coordination of the operations, the members may also share financial resources or act jointly on the capital market. This study presents a two-stage supply chain model considering the opportunity to invest in new energy efficient technologies which are affected by learning effects: the member of the supply chain with better energy performance and/or better financial conditions may find it more profitable to invest in the development of the energy efficiency of its partner. The objective of the model is to determine the optimal investment for each supply chain member so as to maximize the Net Present Value of the supply chain. The impacts of the proposed joint decision-making are investigated through some numerical analysis and managerial insights are proposed: the joint decision-making process on the financial flows for the energy efficiency investments results are especially advantageous (up to a 20% increase of the supply chain Net Present Value) when members have different access to capital, which could be the result of different economic conditions in companies' countries, as well as different credit policies or different credit ratings.

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The increased awareness on sustainability, along with several governments' actions for setting greenhouse gas restrictions, has recently generated a relevant pressure on industries towards the improvement of environmental performances. Among the several aspects, companies' focus is mainly on energy use, firstly for its relevant and direct impact on the total cost, and secondly for its environmental linkage. The aim of this contribution is the integration of the energy-related objectives in lot sizing, extending the economic production quantity from the manufacturer point of view and extending the joint economic lot size model from the single-vendor singlebuyer supply chain perspective, so as to show how this approach can lead to a more sustainable production process. The present work proposes a novel framework for dimensioning production lot sizes, based on both economic and energy implications in processes characterized by a variable production rate. Furthermore, an increased attention for the sustainability of the production-inventory system is introduced by considering energy as a key factor in the lot sizing problem, due to the close link between energy and environmental concerns. A traditional agreement and a vendor managed inventory with consignment stock for the joint economic lot sizing have been investigated explicitly formulating energy in production aspects. A numerical example is also presented to compare the behaviour of the models.

No abstract