Responsible
- Thomas Volling
- Andreas Matzke
Project Partners
- Volkswagen AG
Initial Situation and Problem
Revenue management approaches are applied, if scarce capacities go along with uncertain and temporally distributed demand. The goal is to maximize profits by using capacity control or dynamic pricing mechanisms.
In the automotive industry, scarce resources and unsecure demand impose major challenges. In contrast to conventional revenue management applications, there is a parallel production of vehicles built to customer order and vehicles that are based on generating the forecasts and stored up for sale (hybrid production). Stored vehicles are needed to serve customers with short delivery time expectations. Since certain configurations exist only in small numbers, these stock cars are to be regarded as scarce resources. The subject of revenue management in hybrid car production is therefore the economically optimal allocation of stored vehicles to dynamically incoming customer inquiries.
Objective and Approach
Particular challenges of revenue management approaches in the automotive industry result from the decentralized distribution structure with a large number of independent dealers and highly variable vehicle configurations. Appropriate approaches are not yet known. Against this background, the aim of the project is to design a revenue management concept that increases profit in automobile sales. The work will be carried out in cooperation with Volkswagen AG.
Further Information
This and similar projects of our institute led to numerous publications:
- AY, T; VOLLING, T; AUGUSTIN, M; AKINLAR, S.; SPENGLER, T.S. (2011): Revenue Management für Lagerfahrzeuge, in: ZWF Zeitschrift für wirtschaftlichen Fabrikbetrieb, 7, 536-541.
- HINTSCHES, A.; SPENGLER, T.S.; VOLLING, T.; WITTEK, K.; PRIEGNITZ, G. (2010): Revenue Management in Make-To-Order Manufacturing: Case Study of Capacity Control at ThyssenKrupp VDM, in: Business Research (accepted for publication).
- SPENGLER, T.; VOLLING, T.; HINTSCHES, A. (2008): Integration von Revenue Management Konzepten in die Auftragsannahme, Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft, Special Issue 4, 125-151.
- SPENGLER, TH.; HINTSCHES, A.; VOLLING, TH. (2008): Herausforderungen und Potenziale des Einsatzes von Revenue Management am Beispiel eines Unternehmens der Buntmetallindustrie, OR News, Ausgabe 33