Vendor managed inventory (VMI) is a supply-chain initiative in which the vendor is authorized to manage inventories of agreed upon stock-keeping-units at retail locations. In this paper, a modified joint inventory policy is introduced for VMI systems where the vendor takes a standard (s, S) policy and the retailers utilize can-order policies. Under the regime of a can-order policy, each retaile...

This paper discusses how a vendor manages multiple products within its multiple non-identical retailers operating under a vendor managed inventory (VMI) contract that allows unequal shipment frequencies to the retailers. The vendor replenishment cycle for each product is taken to be an integer multiple of the retailer replenishment cycle where vendor is penalized for exceeding the upper stock l...

The concept of vendor managed inventory (VMI) radically changes a traditional inventory management. With regard to the traditional concept, customers make a replenishment decision. However, the VMI concept is that the responsibility for replenishment process is allocated from the customer to the suppliers. As it requires both trading partner sharing more information; therefore, this contributes...

This paper investigates the impact of a vendor managed inventory (VMI) strategy upon transportation operations in a supply chain. Specifically, the issue of batching to enable better use of transport vehicles is studied. A system dynamics methodology is used to develop difference equation models of three scenarios–– traditional, internal consolidation and VMI. The holistic nature of inventory m...