The Complexity Analysis and Control of Time-Delay OEM Supply Chain considering R&D Efforts and Marketing Level

In this paper, we investigate a supply chain consisting of an OEM (i.e., original equipment manufacturer) and a CM (contract manufacturer), in which the OEM decides design effort level and marketing level, and the CM makes decision on product manufacturing effort level. We establish a three-dimensional discrete dynamic model with time delay. Firstly, the sufficient conditions for Neimark–Sacker bifurcation are obtained by using different combinations of decision delay periods as bifurcation parameters, and the effect of the adjustment speeds of decision variables on the system stability and impact of time delay on the system stability are discussed, respectively. Secondly, we perform numerical simulation of this model from the perspective of entropy theory. Finally, we propose two methods to control chaos. Results show that when the time delay or the adjustment speed of decision variable exceed a certain threshold, the system will be led into a chaotic state and the entropy of the system will increase. For alleviating the negative effects of chaotic systems, we introduce control parameters to make efficient control on the chaos. At the critical point, the critical value of the adjustment speed of design effort level (or marketing level) of OEM increases as the adjustment speed of the manufacturing effort level of CM decreases, and vice versa.