T such as radio-frequency identification and global positioning systems can provide improved real-time tracking information for products and replenishment orders along the supply chain. We call this type of visibility order progress information. In this paper, we investigate how order progress information can be used to improve inventory replenishment decisions. To this end, we examine a retail...

In this research, we deal with VMI (Vendor Managed Inventory) problem where one supplier is responsible for managing a retailer’s inventory under unstable customer demand situation. To cope with the nonstationary demand situation, we develop a retrospective action-reward learning model, a kind of reinforcement learning techniques, which is faster in learning than conventional action-reward lear...

In this paper, we study the location routing problem with replenishment facilities (LRPRF), an extension of the location routing problem (LRP) where the vehicles can replenish at some replenishment facilities. Vehicles leave the depot with load on-board, serve customers until out of load, and then either return to a replenishment facility to reload or return to the depot, completing their route...

We consider a joint inventory-pricing problem in which buyers act strategically and bid for units of a firm’s product over an infinite horizon. The number of bidders in each period, as well as the individual bidders’ valuations, are random but stationary over time. There is a holding cost for inventory and a unit cost for ordering more stock from an outside supplier. Backordering is not allowed...

This study derives the optimal run time for a production system with random defective rate and Poisson breakdown. In a real-life manufacturing system, generation of defective items and machine failures are inevitable. With the purpose of addressing these practical issues, this study examines a production system that has random defective items produced, and it also is subject to an equipment fai...

This paper considers the ranking of alternative replenishment policies for a single-location inventory when customer demand is con"ned to a single product. It is supposed that customer demand is uncertain and described by imprecise linguistic terms de"ned by fuzzy sets. For example, `demand is about da, or `demand is more or less between d and d a, or more complex `demand is about d, but there ...

We study periodic-review inventory replenishment problems with fixed ordering costs, and show the optimality of (s, S) inventory replenishment policies. Inventory replenishment is instantaneous, i.e., the lead time is zero. We consider several sales mechanisms, e.g., auction mechanisms, name-your-own-price mechanisms, and multiple heterogeneous sales channels. We prove this result by showing th...

This study is an extension of the Joint Replenishment Problem (JRP) that takes into accounts the warehouse-space restrictions in a distribution center. The focus of this study is to determine the lot sizes of each product under power-of-two policy to minimize the total costs per unit time and to generate a feasible replenishment schedule of multiple products without exceeding the available war...

Due to the rapid changes in circumstances of cooperates such as globalization, technical innovation and competition, inter-dependence among cooperates which compose supply chain has been intensified. This make cooperates be exposed to various risk and even a small uncertainty can disrupt the balance of whole supply chain. Therefore, in this paper, the framework to develop alternative backorder ...