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Controlling distribution inventory systems with shipment consolidation and compound Poisson demand

Johansson, Lina LU ; Sonntag, Danja R. LU ; Marklund, Johan LU and Kiesmüller, Gudrun P. (2019) In European Journal of Operational Research
Abstract

We consider a one-warehouse-multiple-retailer inventory system where the retailers face stochastic customer demand, modelled as compound Poisson processes. Deliveries from the central warehouse to groups of retailers are consolidated using a time based shipment consolidation policy. This means that replenishment orders have to wait until a vehicle departures, which increases the lead time for the retailers and therefore also the safety stock. Thus, a trade-off exists between expected shipment costs and holding costs. Our aim is to determine the shipment intervals and the required amount of safety stock for each retailer and the warehouse to minimize total cost, both for backorder costs and fill rate constraints. Previous work has... (More)

We consider a one-warehouse-multiple-retailer inventory system where the retailers face stochastic customer demand, modelled as compound Poisson processes. Deliveries from the central warehouse to groups of retailers are consolidated using a time based shipment consolidation policy. This means that replenishment orders have to wait until a vehicle departures, which increases the lead time for the retailers and therefore also the safety stock. Thus, a trade-off exists between expected shipment costs and holding costs. Our aim is to determine the shipment intervals and the required amount of safety stock for each retailer and the warehouse to minimize total cost, both for backorder costs and fill rate constraints. Previous work has focused on exact solutions which are computationally demanding and not applicable for larger real world problems. The focus of our present work is on the development of computationally attractive heuristics that can be applied in practice. A numerical study shows that the proposed heuristics perform well compared to the exact cost minimizing solutions. We also illustrate that the approaches are appropriate for solving real world problems using data from a large European company.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Compound Poisson demand, Inventory, Multi-echelon, Shipment consolidation, Stochastic
in
European Journal of Operational Research
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85068864468
ISSN
0377-2217
DOI
10.1016/j.ejor.2019.06.045
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
be354aa5-0b5d-421a-8eac-c4bdf5f3de7b
date added to LUP
2019-07-24 16:53:43
date last changed
2023-03-06 22:44:07
@article{be354aa5-0b5d-421a-8eac-c4bdf5f3de7b,
  abstract     = {{<p>We consider a one-warehouse-multiple-retailer inventory system where the retailers face stochastic customer demand, modelled as compound Poisson processes. Deliveries from the central warehouse to groups of retailers are consolidated using a time based shipment consolidation policy. This means that replenishment orders have to wait until a vehicle departures, which increases the lead time for the retailers and therefore also the safety stock. Thus, a trade-off exists between expected shipment costs and holding costs. Our aim is to determine the shipment intervals and the required amount of safety stock for each retailer and the warehouse to minimize total cost, both for backorder costs and fill rate constraints. Previous work has focused on exact solutions which are computationally demanding and not applicable for larger real world problems. The focus of our present work is on the development of computationally attractive heuristics that can be applied in practice. A numerical study shows that the proposed heuristics perform well compared to the exact cost minimizing solutions. We also illustrate that the approaches are appropriate for solving real world problems using data from a large European company.</p>}},
  author       = {{Johansson, Lina and Sonntag, Danja R. and Marklund, Johan and Kiesmüller, Gudrun P.}},
  issn         = {{0377-2217}},
  keywords     = {{Compound Poisson demand; Inventory; Multi-echelon; Shipment consolidation; Stochastic}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{06}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{European Journal of Operational Research}},
  title        = {{Controlling distribution inventory systems with shipment consolidation and compound Poisson demand}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2019.06.045}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.ejor.2019.06.045}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}