The benefit of VMI strategies in a stochastic multi-product serial two echelon system
Computers and Operations Research
Improving Supply Chain Performance: Real-Time Demand Information and Flexible Deliveries
Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
A Multiechelon Inventory Problem with Secondary Market Sales
Management Science
Dynamic supply chain scheduling
Journal of Scheduling
A sample-path approach to the optimality of echelon order-up-to policies in serial inventory systems
Operations Research Letters
Newsvendor equations for optimal reorder levels of serial inventory systems with fixed batch sizes
Operations Research Letters
Technical Note---On Optimal Policies for Inventory Systems with Batch Ordering
Operations Research
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We consider a single-item, periodic-review, serial inventory/production system, with linear inventory-holding and penalty costs. To facilitate shipment consolidation and capacity planning, we assume that the system has implemented fixed replenishment intervals; each stage is allowed to order only at given equidistant times. Further, for each stage except the most downstream one, the replenishment interval is assumed to be an integer multiple of the replenishment interval of the next downstream stage. This reflects the fact that the further upstream in a supply chain, the higher setup times and costs tend to be, and thus larger batches are desired. Our model with fixed replenishment intervals is a direct generalization of the serial model of Clark and Scarf (1960). For this generalized model, we prove the optimality of base-stock policies, we derive newsboy equations for the optimal base-stock levels, and we describe an efficient exact solution procedure for the case with mixed Erlang demands. Finally, we present extensions to assembly systems and to systems with a modified fill-rate constraint instead of backorder costs.