Installation vs. echelon stock policies for multilevel inventory control
Management Science
Optimal Policies for Multi-Echelon Inventory Problems with Batch Ordering
Operations Research
The Value of Information Sharing in a Two-Level Supply Chain
Management Science
Supply Chain Inventory Management and the Value of Shared Information
Management Science
Computers and Industrial Engineering
The spatial and temporal consolidation of returned products in a closed-loop supply chain network
Computers and Industrial Engineering - Special issue: Logistics and supply chain management
Coordinated Replenishment Strategies in Inventory/Distribution Systems
Management Science
A simple heuristic for echelon (r,nQ, T) policies in serial supply chains
Operations Research Letters
Hi-index | 0.00 |
This study is motivated by a problem that an industrial distributorship faced while distributing automotive spare parts to service and repair centers. Considering the problem encountered, we present an analytical model for joint inventory and shipment consolidation decisions in a two-stage distribution system with a single distribution center, multiple non-identical retailers, and an outside supplier. The retailers face stochastic end-customer demand and use continuous review to replenish inventories. On the other hand, the distribution center uses a periodic review policy and employs a time-based shipment consolidation policy to dispatch retailers' accumulated orders at the end of each consolidation cycle. We present an exact optimization technique to compute the optimal replenishment quantity at the distribution center, order-up-to level at retailers, and a shipment consolidation cycle length to measure the effects of inventory at retailers on the overall performance. Finally, we perform numerical experiments to measure the impact of various parameters on the overall distribution system.