IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v309y2023i3p1112-1124.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fixed-interval order-up-to policies and myopic optimal warehouse stock allocation for one-warehouse multiple-retailer systems

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Qinan
  • Wan, Guangyu

Abstract

We consider a centralized two-level distribution system that consists of one warehouse and multiple retailers. The retailers are non-identical and face independent Poisson demand. The system adopts a fixed-interval order-up-to policy, in which the warehouse and retailers each order in a fixed interval to raise the echelon inventory position to a fixed base stock level. Shortages in the system are fully backlogged but transshipments between retailers are not allowed. The fixed-interval order-up-to policy has been studied in the literature under virtual allocation that reserves a unit of warehouse stock immediately after a unit of demand occurs. We consider an inventory control system that is different in two aspects. First, the warehouse implements myopic optimal allocation that allocates stock to retailers only at points of delivery to minimize system cost. Second, the warehouse adopts a non-stationary base stock policy to order stock for retailers according to their replenishment schedules. We develop methods to exactly evaluate and fully optimize this inventory control system. In a numerical study, we demonstrate that myopic optimal allocation reduces system cost by an average of 5.89% with a range from 1.45% to 10.13% as compared to virtual allocation. In addition, we develop an iterative procedure to alleviate the problem of dimensionality for myopic optimal warehouse stock allocation and a close-to-optimal heuristic solution that can significantly reduce computation.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:309:y:2023:i:3:p:1112-1124
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2023.02.025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221723001595
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejor.2023.02.025?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kevin H. Shang & Zhijie Tao & Sean X. Zhou, 2015. "Optimizing Reorder Intervals for Two-Echelon Distribution Systems with Stochastic Demand," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 63(2), pages 458-475, April.
    2. Nils Rudi & Harry Groenevelt & Taylor R. Randall, 2009. "End-of-Period vs. Continuous Accounting of Inventory-Related Costs," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(6), pages 1360-1366, December.
    3. de Kok, Ton & Grob, Christopher & Laumanns, Marco & Minner, Stefan & Rambau, Jörg & Schade, Konrad, 2018. "A typology and literature review on stochastic multi-echelon inventory models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 269(3), pages 955-983.
    4. Qinan Wang, 2011. "Control Policies for Multi-echelon Inventory Systems with Stochastic Demand," International Handbooks on Information Systems, in: Tsan-Ming Choi & T.C. Edwin Cheng (ed.), Supply Chain Coordination under Uncertainty, pages 83-108, Springer.
    5. Qinan Wang & Sven Axsäter, 2013. "Fixed‐interval joint‐replenishment policies for distribution systems with multiple retailers and stochastic demand," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 60(8), pages 637-651, December.
    6. Awi Federgruen & Paul Zipkin, 1984. "Approximations of Dynamic, Multilocation Production and Inventory Problems," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(1), pages 69-84, January.
    7. Sven Axsäter & Johan Marklund, 2008. "Optimal Position-Based Warehouse Ordering in Divergent Two-Echelon Inventory Systems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(4), pages 976-991, August.
    8. Graves, Stephen C., 1989. "A multi-echelon inventory model with fixed reorder intervals," Working papers 3045-89., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    9. Fang Liu & Jing-Sheng Song, 2012. "Good and Bad News About the ( S , T ) Policy," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 14(1), pages 42-49, January.
    10. Johansson, Lina & Sonntag, Danja R. & Marklund, Johan & Kiesmüller, Gudrun P., 2020. "Controlling distribution inventory systems with shipment consolidation and compound Poisson demand," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 280(1), pages 90-101.
    11. Özalp Özer, 2003. "Replenishment Strategies for Distribution Systems Under Advance Demand Information," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(3), pages 255-272, March.
    12. Johan Marklund, 2011. "Inventory control in divergent supply chains with time‐based dispatching and shipment consolidation," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 58(1), pages 59-71, February.
    13. Kamran Moinzadeh, 2002. "A Multi-Echelon Inventory System with Information Exchange," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(3), pages 414-426, March.
    14. Stephen C. Graves, 1996. "A Multiechelon Inventory Model with Fixed Replenishment Intervals," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(1), pages 1-18, January.
    15. 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.
    16. Fangruo Chen & Yu-Sheng Zheng, 1997. "One-Warehouse Multiretailer Systems with Centralized Stock Information," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 45(2), pages 275-287, April.
    17. Guillermo Gallego & Özalp Özer & Paul Zipkin, 2007. "Bounds, Heuristics, and Approximations for Distribution Systems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 55(3), pages 503-517, June.
    18. Olof Stenius & Ayşe Gönül Karaarslan & Johan Marklund & A. G. de Kok, 2016. "Exact Analysis of Divergent Inventory Systems with Time-Based Shipment Consolidation and Compound Poisson Demand," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 64(4), pages 906-921, August.
    19. Sven Axsäter & Johan Marklund & Edward A. Silver, 2002. "Heuristic Methods for Centralized Control of One-Warehouse, N-Retailer Inventory Systems," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 4(1), pages 75-97, October.
    20. Peter L. Jackson, 1988. "Stock Allocation in a Two-Echelon Distribution System Or "What to Do Until Your Ship Comes In"," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(7), pages 880-895, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. de Kok, Ton & Grob, Christopher & Laumanns, Marco & Minner, Stefan & Rambau, Jörg & Schade, Konrad, 2018. "A typology and literature review on stochastic multi-echelon inventory models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 269(3), pages 955-983.
    2. Olof Stenius & Ayşe Gönül Karaarslan & Johan Marklund & A. G. de Kok, 2016. "Exact Analysis of Divergent Inventory Systems with Time-Based Shipment Consolidation and Compound Poisson Demand," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 64(4), pages 906-921, August.
    3. Andersson, Jonas & Malmberg, Filip & Marklund, Johan, 2023. "Exact analysis of One-Warehouse-Multiple-Retailer inventory systems with quantity restricted deliveries," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 309(3), pages 1161-1172.
    4. Stenius, Olof & Marklund, Johan & Axsäter, Sven, 2018. "Sustainable multi-echelon inventory control with shipment consolidation and volume dependent freight costs," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 267(3), pages 904-916.
    5. Howard, Christian & Marklund, Johan, 2011. "Evaluation of stock allocation policies in a divergent inventory system with shipment consolidation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 211(2), pages 298-309, June.
    6. Qinan Wang & Sven Axsäter, 2013. "Fixed‐interval joint‐replenishment policies for distribution systems with multiple retailers and stochastic demand," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 60(8), pages 637-651, December.
    7. 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.
    8. Johan Marklund & Kaj Rosling, 2012. "Lower Bounds and Heuristics for Supply Chain Stock Allocation," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 60(1), pages 92-105, February.
    9. Felipe Caro & Jérémie Gallien, 2010. "Inventory Management of a Fast-Fashion Retail Network," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 257-273, April.
    10. Kaynov, Illya & van Knippenberg, Marijn & Menkovski, Vlado & van Breemen, Albert & van Jaarsveld, Willem, 2024. "Deep Reinforcement Learning for One-Warehouse Multi-Retailer inventory management," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    11. Johan Marklund, 2011. "Inventory control in divergent supply chains with time‐based dispatching and shipment consolidation," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 58(1), pages 59-71, February.
    12. Huaxiao Shen & Tian Tian & Han Zhu, 2019. "A Two-Echelon Inventory System with a Minimum Order Quantity Requirement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-22, September.
    13. 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.
    14. Berling, Peter & Marklund, Johan, 2013. "A model for heuristic coordination of real life distribution inventory systems with lumpy demand," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 230(3), pages 515-526.
    15. Fangruo Chen & Rungson Samroengraja, 2004. "Order Volatility and Supply Chain Costs," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 52(5), pages 707-722, October.
    16. Jana Ralfs & Gudrun P. Kiesmüller, 2022. "Inventory management with advance demand information and flexible shipment consolidation," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 44(4), pages 1009-1044, December.
    17. Kunnumkal, Sumit & Topaloglu, Huseyin, 2011. "Linear programming based decomposition methods for inventory distribution systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 211(2), pages 282-297, June.
    18. Kevin H. Shang & Zhijie Tao & Sean X. Zhou, 2015. "Optimizing Reorder Intervals for Two-Echelon Distribution Systems with Stochastic Demand," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 63(2), pages 458-475, April.
    19. Sven Axsäter, 2007. "On the first come–first served rule in multi‐echelon inventory control," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(5), pages 485-491, August.
    20. Sven Axsäter & Johan Marklund, 2008. "Optimal Position-Based Warehouse Ordering in Divergent Two-Echelon Inventory Systems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(4), pages 976-991, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:309:y:2023:i:3:p:1112-1124. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.