The impact of cost structure on supply chain cash flow risk
通过现金转换周期的三个组成部分（库存天数、应收和应付账款），研究了成本结构（成本比率和成本构成）如何影响现金流风险，并解释了准时制和3D打印等管理理念和技术如何通过缩短库存天数和改变成本结构来降低风险。
Managing supply chain cash flow risk has become a crucial task for many cash-stressed businesses. Cash flows usually lag behind operating earnings and exhibit higher volatility than earnings, making them less predictable. Through the three components of the cash conversion cycle – days in inventory, receivables, and payables, this study investigates the impact of cost structure – cost ratios and cost compositions – on cash flow risk (standard deviation) and explains why and how management philosophies, such as Just-In-Time, and new production technologies, such as 3D printing, can lower cash flow risk by shortening days in inventory and shifting cost structure. An analytical model built on a simple demand process examines the basic relationship between cost structure and cash flow risk while a simulation approach studies the same relationship under a more general demand process with additional modelling considerations and a benchmark test. The simulation approach is applied on a publicly traded company’s financial data to demonstrate how supply chain process improvement can reduce the cash flow risk.