IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/oropre/v46y1998i4p592-602.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Near-Optimal Echelon-Stock (R, nQ) Policies in Multistage Serial Systems

Author

Listed:
  • Fangruo Chen

    (Columbia University, New York, New York)

  • Yu-Sheng Zheng

    (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Abstract

We study echelon-stock ( R , nQ ) policies in a multistage, serial inventory system with compound Poisson demand. We provide a simple method for determining near-optimal control parameters. This is achieved in two steps. First, we establish lower and upper bounds on the cost function by over- and under-charging a penalty cost to each upstream stage for holding inadequate stock. Second, we minimize the bounds, which are simple, separable functions of the control parameters, to obtain heuristic solutions. We also provide an algorithm that guarantees an optimal solution at the expense of additional computational effort. A numerical study suggests that the heuristic solutions are easy to compute (even for systems with many stages) and are close to optimal. It also suggests that a traditional approach for determining the order quantities can be seriously suboptimal. All the results can be easily extended to the discrete-time case with independent, identically distributed demands.

Suggested Citation

  • Fangruo Chen & Yu-Sheng Zheng, 1998. "Near-Optimal Echelon-Stock (R, nQ) Policies in Multistage Serial Systems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 46(4), pages 592-602, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:46:y:1998:i:4:p:592-602
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.46.4.592
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/opre.46.4.592
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/opre.46.4.592?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. Ralph D. Badinelli, 1992. "A Model for Continuous-Review Pull Policies in Serial Inventory Systems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 40(1), pages 142-156, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    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. Kevin H. Shang & Sean X. Zhou, 2010. "Optimal and Heuristic Echelon ( r, nQ, T ) Policies in Serial Inventory Systems with Fixed Costs," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 414-427, April.
    3. Agrawal, Narendra & Smith, Stephen A., 2019. "Optimal inventory management using retail prepacks," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 274(2), pages 531-544.
    4. Kevin H. Shang & Jing-Sheng Song & Paul H. Zipkin, 2009. "Coordination Mechanisms in Decentralized Serial Inventory Systems with Batch Ordering," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(4), pages 685-695, April.
    5. Xiuli Chao & Sean X. Zhou, 2009. "Optimal Policy for a Multiechelon Inventory System with Batch Ordering and Fixed Replenishment Intervals," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(2), pages 377-390, April.
    6. 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.
    7. Jinfeng Yue & Bintong Chen & Min-Chiang Wang, 2006. "Expected Value of Distribution Information for the Newsvendor Problem," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 54(6), pages 1128-1136, December.
    8. Fernando Bernstein & Yang Li & Kevin Shang, 2016. "A Simple Heuristic for Joint Inventory and Pricing Models with Lead Time and Backorders," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(8), pages 2358-2373, August.
    9. Amir Hosein Afshar Sedigh & Rasoul Haji & Seyed Mehdi Sajadifar, 2023. "The Cost Function of a Two-Level Inventory System with identical retailers benefitting from Information Sharing," Papers 2312.03898, arXiv.org.
    10. Kevin H. Shang & Jing-Sheng Song, 2007. "Serial Supply Chains with Economies of Scale: Bounds and Approximations," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 55(5), pages 843-853, October.
    11. Zhao, Qiu-Hong & Chen, Shuang & Zang, Cun-Xun, 2008. "Model and algorithm for inventory/routing decision in a three-echelon logistics system," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 191(3), pages 623-635, December.
    12. Fangruo Chen, 1998. "Echelon Reorder Points, Installation Reorder Points, and the Value of Centralized Demand Information," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(12-Part-2), pages 221-234, December.
    13. Fangruo Chen, 2000. "Optimal Policies for Multi-Echelon Inventory Problems with Batch Ordering," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 48(3), pages 376-389, June.
    14. Kevin H. Shang, 2008. "Note: A Simple Heuristic for Serial Inventory Systems with Fixed Order Costs," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(4), pages 1039-1043, August.
    15. Ming Hu & Yi Yang, 2014. "Modified Echelon ( r, Q ) Policies with Guaranteed Performance Bounds for Stochastic Serial Inventory Systems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 62(4), pages 812-828, August.

    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. Kim, Ilhyung & Tang, Christopher S., 1997. "Lead time and response time in a pull production control system," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 474-485, September.
    2. Karaman, Abdullah & Altiok, Tayfur, 2009. "Approximate analysis and optimization of batch ordering policies in capacitated supply chains," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 193(1), pages 222-237, February.
    3. Mitra, Subrata & Chatterjee, A. K., 2004. "Echelon stock based continuous review (R,Q) policy for fast moving items," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 161-166, April.
    4. Li, Xiaoming & Sridharan, V., 2008. "Characterizing order processes of using (R,nQ) inventory policies in supply chains," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1096-1104, December.
    5. Badinelli, Ralph D., 1996. "Approximating probability density functions and their convolutions using orthogonal polynomials," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 211-230, November.
    6. Diks, E. B. & de Kok, A. G. & Lagodimos, A. G., 1996. "Multi-echelon systems: A service measure perspective," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 241-263, December.
    7. Li, Xiuhui & Wang, Qinan, 2007. "Coordination mechanisms of supply chain systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 179(1), pages 1-16, May.
    8. Ying Zhang & Jayashankar M. Swaminathan, 2020. "Warehouse Location in An Emerging Country: A Win–Win Proposition?," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(6), pages 1487-1505, June.
    9. 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.
    10. E. P. Chew & L. A. Johnson, 1995. "Service levels in distribution systems with random customer order size," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(1), pages 39-56, February.
    11. Sarker, Bhaba R. & Balan, Chidambaram V., 1999. "Operations planning for a multi-stage kanban system," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(2), pages 284-303, January.

    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:oropre:v:46:y:1998:i:4:p:592-602. 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.