IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormsom/v17y2015i1p34-51.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Making Better Fulfillment Decisions on the Fly in an Online Retail Environment

Author

Listed:
  • Jason Acimovic

    (Smeal College of Business, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802)

  • Stephen C. Graves

    (Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139)

Abstract

Relative to brick-and-mortar retailers, online retailers have the potential to offer more options to their customers, with respect to both inventory as well as delivery times. To do this entails the management of a distribution network with more decision options than a traditional retailer. The online retailer, not the customer, decides from where items will ship, by what shipping method, and how or whether multiple-item orders will be broken up into multiple shipments. What is the best way to fulfill each customer’s order to minimize average outbound shipping cost? We partner with an online retailer to examine this question. We develop a heuristic that makes fulfillment decisions by minimizing the immediate outbound shipping cost plus an estimate of future expected outbound shipping costs. These estimates are derived from the dual values of a transportation linear program (LP). In our experiments on industry data, we capture 36% of the opportunity gap assuming clairvoyance, leading to reductions in outbound shipping costs on the order of 1%. These cost savings are achieved without any deterioration in customer service levels or any increase in holding costs. The transportation LP also serves as the basis for a metric that provides information on the quality of the inventory position. Based on initial successful piloting, our industrial partner has implemented the metric as well as a version of the heuristic that it is applying to every fulfillment decision for each of its stock keeping units in North America.

Suggested Citation

  • Jason Acimovic & Stephen C. Graves, 2015. "Making Better Fulfillment Decisions on the Fly in an Online Retail Environment," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 17(1), pages 34-51, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormsom:v:17:y:2015:i:1:p:34-51
    DOI: 10.1287/msom.2014.0505
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/msom.2014.0505
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/msom.2014.0505?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Noah Gans & Garrett van Ryzin, 1999. "Dynamic Vehicle Dispatching: Optimal Heavy Traffic Performance and Practical Insights," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 47(5), pages 675-692, October.
    2. Ping Josephine Xu & Russell Allgor & Stephen C. Graves, 2009. "Benefits of Reevaluating Real-Time Order Fulfillment Decisions," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 11(2), pages 340-355, January.
    3. Hugo P. Simão & Jeff Day & Abraham P. George & Ted Gifford & John Nienow & Warren B. Powell, 2009. "An Approximate Dynamic Programming Algorithm for Large-Scale Fleet Management: A Case Application," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(2), pages 178-197, May.
    4. Kyle Cattani & Wendell Gilland & Hans Sebastian Heese & Jayashankar Swaminathan, 2006. "Boiling Frogs: Pricing Strategies for a Manufacturer Adding a Direct Channel that Competes with the Traditional Channel," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 15(1), pages 40-56, March.
    5. Daniel Adelman, 2003. "Price-Directed Replenishment of Subsets: Methodology and Its Application to Inventory Routing," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 5(4), pages 348-371, May.
    6. Ann Melissa Campbell & Martin W. P. Savelsbergh, 2005. "Decision Support for Consumer Direct Grocery Initiatives," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(3), pages 313-327, August.
    7. Sven Axsäter, 2003. "A New Decision Rule for Lateral Transshipments in Inventory Systems," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(9), pages 1168-1179, September.
    8. Paterson, Colin & Kiesmüller, Gudrun & Teunter, Ruud & Glazebrook, Kevin, 2011. "Inventory models with lateral transshipments: A review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 210(2), pages 125-136, April.
    9. Archibald, T.W. & Black, D. & Glazebrook, K.D., 2009. "An index heuristic for transshipment decisions in multi-location inventory systems based on a pairwise decomposition," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 192(1), pages 69-78, January.
    10. Dimitris Bertsimas & Vivek F. Farias & Nikolaos Trichakis, 2013. "Fairness, Efficiency, and Flexibility in Organ Allocation for Kidney Transplantation," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 61(1), pages 73-87, February.
    11. Sven Axsäter, 1990. "Modelling Emergency Lateral Transshipments in Inventory Systems," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(11), pages 1329-1338, November.
    12. Steven Nahmias & W. Steven Demmy, 1981. "Operating Characteristics of an Inventory System with Rationing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(11), pages 1236-1245, November.
    13. Serguei Netessine & Nils Rudi, 2006. "Supply Chain Choice on the Internet," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(6), pages 844-864, June.
    14. Jian Yang & Zhaoqiong Qin, 2007. "Capacitated Production Control with Virtual Lateral Transshipments," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 55(6), pages 1104-1119, December.
    15. Arthur F. Veinott, 1965. "Optimal Policy in a Dynamic, Single Product, Nonstationary Inventory Model with Several Demand Classes," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 13(5), pages 761-778, October.
    16. Alptekinoglu, Aydin & Tang, Christopher S., 2005. "A model for analyzing multi-channel distribution systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 163(3), pages 802-824, June.
    17. Agatz, Niels A.H. & Fleischmann, Moritz & van Nunen, Jo A.E.E., 2008. "E-fulfillment and multi-channel distribution - A review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 187(2), pages 339-356, June.
    18. Daniel Adelman & George L. Nemhauser & Mario Padron & Robert Stubbs & Ram Pandit, 1999. "Allocating Fibers in Cable Manufacturing," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 1(1), pages 21-35.
    19. Hau L. Lee, 1987. "A Multi-Echelon Inventory Model for Repairable Items with Emergency Lateral Transshipments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(10), pages 1302-1316, October.
    20. Matthew S. Maxwell & Mateo Restrepo & Shane G. Henderson & Huseyin Topaloglu, 2010. "Approximate Dynamic Programming for Ambulance Redeployment," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 22(2), pages 266-281, May.
    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. Zümbül Atan & Lawrence V. Snyder & George R. Wilson, 2018. "Transshipment policies for systems with multiple retailers and two demand classes," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 40(1), pages 159-186, January.
    2. Mahdavi, Mojtaba & Olsen, Tava Lennon, 2021. "The dual-serving problem: What is the right choice of inventory strategy?," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    3. Satır, Benhür & Savasaneril, Secil & Serin, Yasemin, 2012. "Pooling through lateral transshipments in service parts systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 220(2), pages 370-377.
    4. Alvarez, E.M. & van der Heijden, M.C. & Vliegen, I.M.H. & Zijm, W.H.M., 2014. "Service differentiation through selective lateral transshipments," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 237(3), pages 824-835.
    5. Paterson, Colin & Kiesmüller, Gudrun & Teunter, Ruud & Glazebrook, Kevin, 2011. "Inventory models with lateral transshipments: A review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 210(2), pages 125-136, April.
    6. Jason Acimovic & Stephen C. Graves, 2017. "Mitigating Spillover in Online Retailing via Replenishment," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 19(3), pages 419-436, July.
    7. Xinxin Hu & Izak Duenyas & Roman Kapuscinski, 2008. "Optimal Joint Inventory and Transshipment Control Under Uncertain Capacity," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(4), pages 881-897, August.
    8. Tiacci, Lorenzo & Saetta, Stefano, 2011. "Reducing the mean supply delay of spare parts using lateral transshipments policies," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(1), pages 182-191, September.
    9. Paterson, Colin & Teunter, Ruud & Glazebrook, Kevin, 2012. "Enhanced lateral transshipments in a multi-location inventory system," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 221(2), pages 317-327.
    10. Fritzsche, R., 2012. "Cost adjustment for single item pooling models using a dynamic failure rate: A calculation for the aircraft industry," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(6), pages 1065-1079.
    11. Meissner, Joern & Senicheva, Olga V., 2018. "Approximate dynamic programming for lateral transshipment problems in multi-location inventory systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(1), pages 49-64.
    12. Ulmer, Marlin W. & Thomas, Barrett W., 2020. "Meso-parametric value function approximation for dynamic customer acceptances in delivery routing," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 285(1), pages 183-195.
    13. Seidscher, Arkadi & Minner, Stefan, 2013. "A Semi-Markov decision problem for proactive and reactive transshipments between multiple warehouses," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 230(1), pages 42-52.
    14. Hui Zhao & Vinayak Deshpande & Jennifer K. Ryan, 2005. "Inventory Sharing and Rationing in Decentralized Dealer Networks," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(4), pages 531-547, April.
    15. Li, Shuqin & Jia, Shuai, 2019. "A Benders decomposition algorithm for the order fulfilment problem of an e-tailer with a self-owned logistics system," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 463-480.
    16. John M. Andrews & Vivek F. Farias & Aryan I. Khojandi & Chad M. Yan, 2019. "Primal–Dual Algorithms for Order Fulfillment at Urban Outfitters, Inc," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 49(5), pages 355-370, September.
    17. Yongchang Wei & Fangyu Chen & Feng Xiong, 2018. "Dynamic Complexities in a Supply Chain System with Lateral Transshipments," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2018, pages 1-15, June.
    18. Guangyuan Yang & Rommert Dekker, 2010. "Service Parts Inventory Control with Lateral Transshipment that takes Time," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 10-025/4, Tinbergen Institute, revised 10 Mar 2010.
    19. van Wijk, A.C.C. & Adan, I.J.B.F. & van Houtum, G.J., 2019. "Optimal lateral transshipment policies for a two location inventory problem with multiple demand classes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 272(2), pages 481-495.
    20. Rodríguez, Betzabé & Aydın, Göker, 2015. "Pricing and assortment decisions for a manufacturer selling through dual channels," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 242(3), pages 901-909.

    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:inm:ormsom:v:17:y:2015:i:1:p:34-51. 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: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    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.