A multi-product multi-echelon inventory control model with joint replenishment strategy

On the basis of analyzing the shortages of present studies on multi-echelon inventory control, and considering some restrictions, this paper applies the joint replenishment strategy into the inventory system and builds a multi-product multi-echelon inventory control model. Then, an algorithm designed by Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used for solving the model. Finally, we respectively simulate the model under three different ordering strategies. The simulation result shows that the established model and the algorithm designed by GA have obvious superiority on reducing the total cost of the multi-product multi-echelon inventory system. Moreover, it illustrates the feasibility and the effectiveness of the model and the GA method.