We consider a multi-product serial two echelon inventory system with stochastic demand. Inventories at the downstream location are replenished periodically using an automatic ordering system. Under vendor managed inventory strategies the upstream stage is allowed to adapt these orders in order to benefit from economies of scale. We propose three different VMI strategies, aiming to reduce the or...

The inventory policy problem is a in the system related to how ensure that each usage demand can be met at minimal cost. In healthcare industry, it imperative procurement and use of stock not only cost-effective, but also required always available. Discrepancies between total lead damage BMHP as items have expiry dates, well excess costs. costs exceeding budget occurs because overstock 83% need...

In this article we propose, for any > 0, a 2(1+ )-approximation algorithm for a facility location problem with stochastic demands. At open facilities, inventory is kept such that arriving requests find a zero inventory with (at most) some pre-specified probability. The incurred costs are the expected transportation costs from the demand points to the facilities, the operating costs of the facil...

We consider the periodic-review, single-location, single-product, production/inventory control problem under non stationary demand and service-level constraints. The product is perishable and has a fixed shelf life. Costs comprise fixed ordering costs and inventory holding costs. For this inventory system we discuss a number of control policies that may be adopted. For one of these policies, we...

This paper investigates the impacts inventory shortage policies have on transportation costs in base-stock distribution systems under uncertain demand. The model proposed demonstrates how backlogging arrangements can serve to decrease the variability of transportation capacity requirements, and hence the magnitude of transportation costs, when compared with policies that expedite demand shortag...

This study formulates a two-objective model to determine the optimal liner routing, ship size, and sailing frequency for container carriers by minimizing shipping costs and inventory costs. First, shipping and inventory cost functions are formulated using an analytical method. Then, based on a trade-off between shipping costs and inventory costs, Pareto optimal solutions of the twoobjective mod...

Consider stochastic production-inventory control problem in which there are multiple capacity sources, multiple heterogeneous products, non-stationary demand and time-varying costs. If shortage costs can be evaluated the natural objective is to minimize expected production, inventory and shortage costs. Otherwise one can use service level requirements as target inventory while trying to minimiz...

In many industrial environments there is a significant class of problems for which the perishable nature of the inventory cannot be ignored in developing replenishment order plans. Food is the most salient example of a perishable inventory item. In this work, we consider the periodic-review, single-location, single-product production/inventory control problem under non-stationary stochastic dem...

Optimization models, especially nonlinear optimization models, have been widely used to solve integrated supply chain design problems. In integrated supply chain design, the decision maker needs to take into consideration inventory costs and distribution costs when the number and locations of the facilities are determined. The objective is to minimize the total cost that includes location costs...