Exploring Value Chain Collaboration Models and Assessing Their Profitability

Description

The forest value chain is composed of numerous organizations that often operate independently and with limited coordination in the production and distribution of wood-based products (Rönnqvist et al., 2023). In a context of increasing labour scarcity and rising operational complexity, new collaborative approaches between firms offer significant potential to improve efficiency, resilience, and competitiveness (Lachance et al., 2021).

This PhD aims to investigate how inter-firm collaboration can transform forest resources more efficiently and enhance market responsiveness. The research will systematically identify and characterize different collaboration models across the value chain, including shared production planning, pooled logistics and transportation, joint capacity management, and collaborative product development. Promising collaboration strategies will be selected based on feasibility and expected economic benefits. These strategies will then be evaluated using advanced mathematical modeling approaches, first under deterministic conditions and subsequently in stochastic environments to account for uncertainty in demand, supply, and operational constraints. A comparative performance analysis will ultimately provide decision-support insights to determine which collaboration models are most suitable under different industrial contexts.

The candidate will work in close collaboration with a professor from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières.