Gérard Cachon

Fred R. Sullivan Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions at The Wharton School

Schools

  • The Wharton School

Expertise

Links

Biography

The Wharton School

Professor Cachon studies supply chain management, operation strategy and pricing with a focus on how technology transforms competitive dynamics and enables novel operational strategies. 

He is an INFORMS Fellow, a Fellow and former President of the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society, and the former EditorinChief of  Management Science as well as Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.

He has authored two textbooks (along with Christian Terwiesch): Operations Management (1e) and Matching Supply with Demand: An Introduction to Operations Management (3rd ed.). These books have been used in undergraduate, MBA and executive MBA courses at Wharton as well as at numerous other business schools throughout the world. 

His articles have appeared in Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Marketing ScienceOperations Research, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and _Harvard Business Review, _among otherse

As Vice Dean of Strategic Initiatives he is responsible for developing and leading new initiatives for enhancing Wharton's excellence in teaching and research. 

Gérard Cachon, Kaitlin Daniels, Ruben Lobel (Under Review), The Role of Surge Pricing on a Service Platform with SelfScheduling Capacity.

Gérard Cachon, Santiago Gallino, Marcelo Olivares (Under Review), Severe Weather and Automobile Assembly Productivity.

Santiago Gallino, Gérard Cachon, Marcelo Olivares (Working), Does Inventory Increase Sales? The Billboard and Scarcity Effect in U.S. Automobile Dealerships.

Gérard Cachon (Working), Retail store density and the cost of greenhouse gas emissions.

Robert Swinney, Gérard Cachon, Serguei Netessine (2011), Capacity investment timing by startups and established firms in new markets , Management Science, 57(4). 763777.

Gérard Cachon and Robert Swinney (2011), The value of fast fashion: quick response, enhanced design, and strategic consumer behavior , Management Science, 57(4). 778795.

Gérard Cachon and Pnina Feldman (2011), Pricing Service Subject to Congestion: Charge PerUse Fees or Sell Subscriptions? , Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 13(2). 244260.

Gérard Cachon and Pnina Feldman (Working), Dynamic versus static pricing in the presence of strategic consumers.

Gérard Cachon and Pnina Feldman (Working), Is advance selling desirable with competition?.

Gérard Cachon and Gurhan Kok (2010), Competing manufacturers in a retail supply chain: on contractual form and coordination , Management Science, 56(3). 571589.

Abstract: It is common for a retailer to sell products from competing manufacturers. How then should the firms manage their contract negotiations? The supply chain coordination literature focuses either on a single manufacturer selling to a single retailer or one manufacturer selling to many (possibly competing) retailers. We find that some key conclusions from those market structures do not apply in our setting. We allow the manufacturers to compete for the retailer’s business using one of three types of contracts, a wholesaleprice contract, a quantitydiscount contract or a twopart tariff. It is well known that there are two reasons why a monopolist manufacturer prefers either of the latter two, more sophisticated, contracts relative to the wholesaleprice contract. First, they can be used to coordinate the supply chain, meaning that they induce the retailer to sell more because they reduce the double marginalization caused by wholesaleprice contracts. Second, they can be used to extract rents from the retailer, in theory allowing the manufacturer to leave the retailer only with her reservation pro.t. However, we show that in our market structure these two sophisticated contracts force the manufacturers to compete more aggressively than when they only offer wholesaleprice contracts, and this may leave them worse o¤ and the retailer substantially better o¤. In other words, although in a serial supply chain a retailer may have just cause to fear quantity discounts and twopart tariffs, a retailer may actually prefer those contracts when offered by competing manufacturers. We conclude that the properties a contractual form exhibits in a onemanufacturer supply chain may not carry over to the realistic setting in which multiple manufacturers must compete to sell their goods through a single retailer.

Past Courses

OIDD101 INTRODUCTION TO OIDD

OIDD 101 explores a variety of common quantitative modeling problems that arise frequently in business settings, and discusses how they can be formally modeled and solved with a combination of business insight and computerbased tools. The key topics covered include capacity management, service operations, inventory control, structured decision making, constrained optimization and simulation. This course teaches how to model complex business situations and how to master tools to improve business performance. The goal is to provide a set of foundational skills useful for future coursework atWharton as well as providing an overview of problems and techniques that characterize disciplines that comprise Operations and Information Management.

OIDD615 OPERATIONS STRATEGY

Operations strategy is about organizing people and resources to gain a competitive advantage in the delivery of products (both goods and services) to customers. This course approaches this challenge primarily from two perspectives: 1) how should a firm design their products so that they can be profitably offered; 2) how can a firm best organize and acquire resources to deliver its portfolio of products to customers. To be able to make intelligent decisions regarding these highlevel choices, this course also provides a foundation of analytical methods. These methods give students a conceptual framekwork for understanding the linkage between how a firm manages its supply and how well that supply matches the firm's resulting demand. Specific course topics include designing service systems, managing inventory and product variety, capacity planning, approaches to sourcing and supplier management, constructing global supply chains, managing sustainability initiatives, and revenue management. This course emphasizes both quantitative tools and qualitative frameworks. Neither is more important than the other.

  • INFORMS Fellow, 2015
  • Rapaport Award for Excellence in Teaching the Undergraduate Core, 2013
  • “Tough, but I’ll thank you in 5 years”, 2012
  • Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society Fellow, 2011
  • Penn Fellow: One of six midcareer Penn faculty chosen for this leadership development program, 2011
  • M&SOM Best Paper Award Finalist 2010 for “In Search of the Bullwhip Effect”, 2010
  • “Tough, But I’ll Thank You in 5 Years Award”, 2009
  • MSOM Society Service award, 2008
  • MillerSherrerd teaching award: Awarded to the 8 professors with the highest core teaching evaluations, 2004
  • MSOM Meritorious Service award, 2004
  • Tough, But I’ll Thank You in 5 Years” Award, given by the Wharton Graduate Students Association, 2002
  • ‘Fuqua School of Business’ DaimlerChrysler Teaching Award for Innovation and Excellence in an Elective Course, 1999

Knowledge @ Wharton

  • Frustrated by Surge Pricing? Here’s How It Benefits You in the Long Run, Knowledge @ Wharton 01/05/2016
  • The Silver Lining in Bad Weather: Higher Productivity, Knowledge @ Wharton 01/29/2015
  • As China Changes, So Do Global Supply Chains, Knowledge @ Wharton 07/22/2013
  • Chinese Supply Chains Reach an ‘Inflection Point’ – and Multinationals Recast Strategies, Knowledge @ Wharton 07/17/2013
  • A ‘Carrots and Sticks’ Approach to Dealing with Skipped Reservations, Knowledge @ Wharton 06/05/2013
  • Skipped Out on Your Restaurant Reservation? That Will Be $200, Please, Knowledge @ Wharton 06/05/2013
  • Preventing More Tragedies in Bangladesh, Knowledge @ Wharton 05/15/2013
  • Is the Death of the PC Imminent?, Knowledge @ Wharton 04/23/2013
  • Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: Why Shaved Heads Lead the Pack, Knowledge @ Wharton 09/21/2012
  • Going Green with ‘Smart’ Regulation, Knowledge @ Wharton 07/25/2012
  • Pseudo Science: How Lack of Disclosure in Academic Research Can Damage Credibility, Knowledge @ Wharton 06/20/2012
  • Sunspots: Germany Proves Solar Energy Is No Mirage, Knowledge @ Wharton 05/30/2012
  • Research Roundup: The ‘Flip Side’ of Open Innovation, Productivity Losses from Bad Weather and Assessing the Risks of Outsourcing, Knowledge @ Wharton 02/01/2012
  • A Tough Road for U.S. Businesses in Myanmar, Knowledge @ Wharton 11/30/2011
  • Biggest by Default: Toyota May Be Number One, But It Still Faces Challenges, Knowledge @ Wharton 02/04/2009
  • A Precarious Road: How Retailers Can Navigate Inflation’s Hazards, Knowledge @ Wharton 08/06/2008
  • Retail Price Maintenance Policies: A Bane for Retailers, but a Boon for Consumers?, Knowledge @ Wharton 08/08/2007
  • Here Today, Discounted Tomorrow: Strategic Shoppers Know When to Buy, and at What Price, Knowledge @ Wharton 05/30/2007
  • Can’t Find That Dress on the Rack? Retailers Are Pushing More Shoppers to the Web, Knowledge @ Wharton 11/01/2006
  • ‘You Can’t Manage What You Can’t Measure’: Maximizing Supply Chain Value, Knowledge @ Wharton 09/06/2006
  • Christmas Creep: The Shopping Season Is Longer, but Is It Better?, Knowledge @ Wharton 03/01/2006
  • Who Gains, Who Loses, from RFID’s Growing Presence in the Marketplace?, Knowledge @ Wharton 03/23/2005
  • Now Showing at Blockbuster: How Revenuesharing Contracts Improve Supply Chain Performance, Knowledge @ Wharton 10/16/2000

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