We consider customer response time minimization in a two-echelon supply chain system with stochastic demand where the first echelon consists of one production plant and the other of one retailer. Traditionally models of this type only seek to minimize traditional operating costs. However, because of the highly competitive nature of the market, it is also essential for the manufacturer to respon...

This paper investigates the impacts of cap-and-trade (CAT) regulation on a three-echelon closed-loop supply chain network (CLSCN) that consists suppliers, high-emission and low-emission manufacturers, demand markets carbon trading centers. The presented CLSCN model includes both product subnets. Combining variational inequality theory (VI) with complementary theory, we first characterize optima...

Closed loop supply chain aims at integrating return products in the traditional supply chain processes. The return flows generate new uncertain elements (returns and leadtimes) and optimization of inventory control in this context is a complex issue. Inventory policies have to generate good performances (service level, cost) and be easy to implement in practice. A supply chain model based on si...

In this paper, a three-echelon supply chain model is analyzed to determine strategies to reduce the supply chain system dynamics. Uniqueness of this research stems from the use of multiple models with varying degrees of detail representing the same supply chain. The significance of a detailed supply chain model on the quality of result is made clear. Factors employed to build an abstract to a d...

Nowadays, in highly competitive global markets and constant pressure to reduce total costs, enterprises consider group technology and Supply Chain Management (SCM) accordingly and usually separately as the key elements for intra and inter facilities improvement. Simultaneous consideration of the elements of these two disciplines in an integrated design can result in higher efficiency and ...

Inventory control is one of the most important issues in supply chain management. In this paper, a three-echelon production, distribution, inventory system composed of one producer, a set of wholesalers and retailers is considered. Costumers' demands can be approximated by a normal distribution and the inventory policy is a kind of continuous review (R, Q). In this paper, a model based on stand...

This paper considers a two-echelon capacitated supply chain with two non-identical retailers and information sharing. We characterize the optimal inventory policies. We also study the benefits of the optimal stock rationing policy over the first come first served (FCFS) and the modified echelon-stock rationing (MESR) policies. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

C often face nonstationary demand due to product life cycles and seasonality, and nonstationary demand complicates supply chain managers’ inventory decisions. This paper proposes a simple heuristic for determining stocking levels in a serial inventory system. Unlike the exact optimization algorithm, the heuristic generates a near-optimal solution by solving a series of independent single-stage ...