Coordinating timing of information updating in a supply chain

This paper studies coordination of timing of information updating in a supply chain with a manufacturer and a retailer. The manufacturer offers the retailer several timing choices to place his order when demand information is updated. The manufacturer can arrange his production twice, one at the beginning when the retailer decides the time to make order; if necessary he arranges a second production when he receives the retailerpsilas firm order. We solve both centralized and decentralized systems. Buy back contract is also incorporated into the decentralized model for the purpose of coordinating the supply chain. Through the numerical analysis, Pareto improvements are found. However, the whole supply chainpsilas profit still can not exceed that of centralized system.