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A periodic-review inventory control policy for a two-level supply chain with multiple retailers and stochastic demand

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  • Wang, Qinan

Abstract

We consider a time-based inventory control policy for a two-level supply chain with one warehouse and multiple retailers in this paper. Let the warehouse order in a fixed base replenishment interval. The retailers are required to order in intervals that are integer-ratio multiples of the base replenishment interval at the warehouse. The warehouse and the retailers each adopt an order-up-to policy, i.e. order the needed stock at a review point to raise the inventory position to a fixed order-up-to level. It is assumed that the retailers face independent Poisson demand processes and no transshipments between them are allowed. The contribution of the study is threefold. First, we assume that when facing a shortage the warehouse allocates the remaining stock to the retailers optimally to minimize system cost in the last minute before delivery and provide an approach to evaluate the exact system cost. Second, we characterize the structural properties and develop an exact optimal solution for the inventory control system. Finally, we demonstrate that the last minute optimal warehouse stock allocation rule we adopt dominates the virtual allocation rule in which warehouse stock is allocated to meet retailer demand on a first-come first-served basis with significant cost benefits. Moreover, the proposed time-based inventory control policy can perform equally well or better than the commonly used stock-based batch-ordering policy for distribution systems with multiple retailers.

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  • Wang, Qinan, 2013. "A periodic-review inventory control policy for a two-level supply chain with multiple retailers and stochastic demand," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 230(1), pages 53-62.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:230:y:2013:i:1:p:53-62
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2013.04.004
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Govindan, Kannan, 2015. "The optimal replenishment policy for time-varying stochastic demand under vendor managed inventory," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 242(2), pages 402-423.
    3. Faiza Hamdi & Ahmed Ghorbel & Faouzi Masmoudi & Lionel Dupont, 2018. "Optimization of a supply portfolio in the context of supply chain risk management: literature review," Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 763-788, April.
    4. Nouri, Mina & Hosseini-Motlagh, Seyyed-Mahdi & Nematollahi, Mohammadreza & Sarker, Bhaba R., 2018. "Coordinating manufacturer's innovation and retailer's promotion and replenishment using a compensation-based wholesale price contract," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 11-24.
    5. Dina Smirnov & Yale T. Herer & Assaf Avrahami, 2021. "Two‐Phase Newsvendor with Optimally Timed Additional Replenishment: Model, Algorithm, Case Study," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(9), pages 2871-2889, September.
    6. Wang, Qinan & Wan, Guangyu, 2023. "Fixed-interval order-up-to policies and myopic optimal warehouse stock allocation for one-warehouse multiple-retailer systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 309(3), pages 1112-1124.

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