Subcontracting, Coordination, Flexibility, and Production Smoothing in Aggregate Planning
提出一个模型，将分包明确视为生产计划策略，讨论市场与非市场分包机制及其成本，证明协调性分包帕累托优于其他机制，并用二次成本函数示例推导出生产、库存和分包的线性决策规则，表明分包能降低生产与库存波动。
We propose a model in which subcontracting can be explicitly considered as a production planning strategy. Possible market and nonmarket subcontracting mechanisms and their costs are discussed. We show that a class of feasible subcontracting mechanisms in which firms coordinate their production via subcontracts Pareto-dominate other mechanisms. We then offer an example with quadratic cost functions and coordination subcontracts; linear decision rules for production, inventory, and subcontracting are derived. In the example, subcontracting reduces the variability in production and inventory. The same interpretation can be used for flexibility of manufacturing resources.