Application of average dynamic programming to inventory systems

We show the existence ofaverage cost (AC-) optimal policy for an inventory system withuncountable state space; in fact, the AC-optimal cost and an AC-optimal stationary policy areexplicitly computed. In order to do this, we use a variant of thevanishing discount factor approach, which have been intensively studied in recent years but the available results not cover the inventory problem we are interested in.The work of the first author (OVA) was partially supported by Fondo del Sistema de Investigación del Mar de Cortéz under grant SIMAC/94/CT-005. The work of the second author (RMdO) was partially supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACyT) under grant 0635P-E9506.     

$${\cal K}$$-Convexity1 in $$\Re^{n}$$

We generalize the concept of K-convexity to an n-dimensional Euclidean space. The resulting concept of -convexity is useful in addressing production and inventory problems where there are individual product setup costs and/or joint setup costs. We derive some basic properties of -convex functions. We conclude the paper with some suggestions for future research. Support from Columbia University and University of Texas at Dallas is gratefully acknowledged. Helpful comments from Qi Feng are appreciated.     

Aggregation and disaggregation in Markov decision models for inventory control

In this paper the possibility is investigated of using aggregation in the action space for some Markov decision processes of inventory control type. For the standard (s, S) inventory control model the policy improvement procedure can be executed in a very efficient way, therefore, aggregation in the action space is not of much use. However, in situations where the decisions have some aftereffect and, hence, the old decision has to be incorporated in the state, it might be rewarding to aggregate actions. Some variants for aggregation and disaggregation are formulated and analyzed. Numerical evidence is presented.     

An efficient approach for dual sourcing inventory systems with Tailored Base-Surge policies

Nowadays most companies use dual sourcing strategies to manage supply chains. Recently, a practical policy called the Tailored Base-Surge (TBS) policy has been proposed to manage the system, and shown to perform well. We study a dual sourcing inventory system with i.i.d. demands and TBS policies. Using the techniques of MacLaurin series analysis, we develop an efficient method to calculate the moments of the inventory position, the bullwhip effect, and performance measures. Numerical experiments show that our method works well.     

需求可变性降低对均值CVaR约束销售努力决策库存系统的影响

本文运用Levy提出的变换研究需求可变性降低对风险偏好零售商的库存决策、销售努力决策和期望效用的影响,用均值CVaR刻画零售商的风险偏好特性,它包括风险厌恶、风险追求,也具有损失规避的特性。首先,运用该变换定量刻画需求可变性的降低,证明该变换蕴含经典随机占优中的割准则序和二阶随机占优等。其次,给出系统的最优订货量、最优期望效用和最优销售努力水平,得到它们关于风险偏好系数的单调性,并给出降低需求可变性对期望效用的影响。第三,针对风险中性、风险厌恶(最大化CVaR)和风险追求(最小化CVaR)这三种特殊情况得到相应的结果,并给出企业在库存决策和促销决策的管理启示。最后,通过数值例子验证了得到的研究结果并给出相应的管理启示。     

基于排队的两类顾客易逝品库存控制策略研究

本文采用排队理论在面向两类顾客需求的环境下讨论易逝品库存排队系统控制策略问题。首先刻画面向两类顾客服务且具有马尔科夫结构的易逝品库存系统排队模型,获得库存水平状态的稳态概率分布以及作为库存成本控制的系统稳态性能指标。接下来,构建库存控制成本函数及考虑服务水平约束的库存控制优化模型,设计了改进的遗传算法。最后,数值算例揭示出系统参数的敏感性和相应的管理启示。     

Managing supply chain backorders under vendor managed inventory: An incentive approach and empirical analysis

This paper shows how a manufacturer may use an incentive contract with a distributor under a VMI arrangement to gain market share. The manufacturer promises a distributor lower inventory levels in exchange for efforts by the distributor to convert potential lost sales due to stockouts to backorders. Data gathered from a third party provider of information services are then used to illustrate that this incentive arrangement may, at least implicitly, be employed in industry. Our data estimations show that when a manufacturer and distributor are operating under a VMI arrangement, lower inventory at the distributor is associated with a higher conversion rate of lost sales stockouts to backorders.     

An improvement to multiple criteria ABC inventory classification

In this paper we presented an extended version of the Ng-modelg [W.L. Ng, A simple classifier for multiple criteria ABC analysis, European Journal of Operational Research 177 (2007) 344–353] for multi-criteria inventory classification. The proposed model is a nonlinear programming model which determines a common set of weights for all the items. Our model not only incorporates multiple criteria for ABC classification, but also maintains the effects of weights in the final solution, an improvement over the model proposed by Ng. An illustrative example is presented to compare our model and the Ng-model.     

基于MCMC的随机库存系统中提前期需求分布的计算

在需求和提前期均是随机的库存系统中,提前期需求的分布是由提前期分布与需求分布复合而成的,这个复合分布的计算通常是困难的。本文采用基于Gibbs抽样的马尔科夫链蒙特卡洛(MCMC,Markov chain Monte Carlo)方法,抽取条件分布样本作为提前期需求分布的样本,通过样本来计算提前期需求分布密度、服务水平和损失函数。这种方法避免了直接求解复杂积分计算上的困难,也克服了近似分布拟合偏差过大的问题,有效地解决了随机需求与随机提前期的复杂库存系统中提前期需求确定问题。理论与数值分析结果表明:与现有方法相比较,基于MCMC的方法具有计算简便、拟合精度高、通用性好等特点。     

损耗性物品信用交易下的斯坦博格库存模型

目前众多的信用交易模型是在供应商给定的信用交易期限条件下,零售商确定最优订购数量或订购周期,而很少考虑供应商信用交易策略的制定问题。本文针对损耗性物品,在最终需求为价格的线性函数条件下,利用斯坦博格博弈模型给出了信用交易下供应商信用交易策略的制定和零售商的最优订购决策,最后通过算例对模型进行了验证。