This book has a dual purpose?serving as an advanced textbook designed to prepare doctoral students to do research on the mathematical foundations of inventory theory, and as a reference work for those already engaged in such research. All chapters conclude with exercises that either solidify or extend the concepts introduced.
In this review we focus on supply coordination and use the bullwhip effect as the key example of supply chain inefficiency. We emphasize the managerial relevance of the bullwhip effect and the methodological issues so that both managers and researchers can benefit.
This third edition, which has been fully updated and now includes improved and extended explanations, is suitable as a core textbook as well as a source book for industry practitioners. It covers traditional approaches for forecasting, lot sizing, determination of safety stocks and reorder points, KANBAN policies and Material Requirements Planning. It also includes recent advances in inventory theory, for example, new techniques for multi-echelon inventory systems and Roundy's 98 percent approximation. The book also considers methods for coordinated replenishments of different items, and various practical issues in connection with industrial implementation. Other topics covered in Inventory Control include: alternative forecasting techniques, material on different stochastic demand processes and how they can be fitted to empirical data, generalized treatment of single-echelon periodic review systems, capacity constrained lot sizing, short sections on lateral transshipments and on remanufacturing, coordination and contracts. As noted, the explanations have been improved throughout the book and the text also includes problems, with solutions in an appendix.
Comprehensively teaches the fundamentals of supply chain theory This book presents the methodology and foundations of supply chain management and also demonstrates how recent developments build upon classic models. The authors focus on strategic, tactical, and operational aspects of supply chain management and cover a broad range of topics from forecasting, inventory management, and facility location to transportation, process flexibility, and auctions. Key mathematical models for optimizing the design, operation, and evaluation of supply chains are presented as well as models currently emerging from the research frontier. Fundamentals of Supply Chain Theory, Second Edition contains new chapters on transportation (traveling salesman and vehicle routing problems), integrated supply chain models, and applications of supply chain theory. New sections have also been added throughout, on topics including machine learning models for forecasting, conic optimization for facility location, a multi-supplier model for supply uncertainty, and a game-theoretic analysis of auctions. The second edition also contains case studies for each chapter that illustrate the real-world implementation of the models presented. This edition also contains nearly 200 new homework problems, over 60 new worked examples, and over 140 new illustrative figures. Plentiful teaching supplements are available, including an Instructor’s Manual and PowerPoint slides, as well as MATLAB programming assignments that require students to code algorithms in an effort to provide a deeper understanding of the material. Ideal as a textbook for upper-undergraduate and graduate-level courses in supply chain management in engineering and business schools, Fundamentals of Supply Chain Theory, Second Edition will also appeal to anyone interested in quantitative approaches for studying supply chains.
This book develops a modeling framework to analyze the problem of inventory management with alternative delivery times. The general context considered here is that a seller replenishes its inventory in fixed intervals and, between replenishments, allocates the limited inventory to satisfy customers who are both price and delivery-time sensitive. On the demand side, customers have heterogeneous delivery-time requirements and choose either spot or late delivery. This theoretical modeling captures the essence of real-world business practices such as the delivery time market segmentation strategy adopted by automobile dealerships in China and many other similar examples. The book focuses on the seller’s optimal inventory replenishment and demand fulfillment policies, and our results provide managerial insights into the merits of flexible delivery-time options. Similar applications such as the group-buying mechanism are also examined. The main mathematical tool used in theoretical analysis is dynamic programming. This book is written for students, researchers, and practitioners in the areas of operations management and industrial engineering who are interested in understanding the rationale of flexible delivery times and designing successful applications.
As the age of Big Data emerges, it becomes necessary to take the five dimensions of Big Data- volume, variety, velocity, volatility, and veracity- and focus these dimensions towards one critical emphasis - value. The Encyclopedia of Business Analytics and Optimization confronts the challenges of information retrieval in the age of Big Data by exploring recent advances in the areas of knowledge management, data visualization, interdisciplinary communication, and others. Through its critical approach and practical application, this book will be a must-have reference for any professional, leader, analyst, or manager interested in making the most of the knowledge resources at their disposal.
Optimal Control and Optimization of Stochastic Supply Chain Systems examines its subject the context of the presence of a variety of uncertainties. Numerous examples with intuitive illustrations and tables are provided, to demonstrate the structural characteristics of the optimal control policies in various stochastic supply chains and to show how to make use of these characteristics to construct easy-to-operate sub-optimal policies. In Part I, a general introduction to stochastic supply chain systems is provided. Analytical models for various stochastic supply chain systems are formulated and analysed in Part II. In Part III the structural knowledge of the optimal control policies obtained in Part II is utilized to construct easy-to-operate sub-optimal control policies for various stochastic supply chain systems accordingly. Finally, Part IV discusses the optimisation of threshold-type control policies and their robustness. A key feature of the book is its tying together of the complex analytical models produced by the requirements of operational practice, and the simple solutions needed for implementation. The analytical models and theoretical analysis propounded in this monograph will be of benefit to academic researchers and graduate students looking at logistics and supply chain management from standpoints in operations research or industrial, manufacturing, or control engineering. The practical tools and solutions and the qualitative insights into the ideas underlying functional supply chain systems will be of similar use to readers from more industrially-based backgrounds.
Inventories are prevalent everywhere in the commercial world, whether it be in retail stores, manufacturing facilities, government stockpile material, Federal Reserve banks, or even your own household. This textbook examines basic mathematical techniques used to sufficiently manage inventories by using various computational methods and mathematical models. The text is presented in a way such that each section can be read independently, and so the order in which the reader approaches the book can be inconsequential. It contains both deterministic and stochastic models along with algorithms that can be employed to find solutions to a variety of inventory control problems. With exercises at the end of each chapter and a clear, systematic exposition, this textbook will appeal to advanced undergraduate and first-year graduate students in operations research, industrial engineering, and quantitative MBA programs. It also serves as a reference for professionals in both industry and government worlds. The prerequisite courses include introductory optimization methods, probability theory (non-measure theoretic), and stochastic processes.
