OBJECTIVE To evaluate the retail sales of pressurised metered-dose inhalers (pMDIs), dry-powder inhalers (DPIs) and liquids for nebulisation in 16 European countries. METHODS Retail sales data relating to pMDIs, DPIs and liquids for nebulisation delivering short- and long-acting bronchodilators, corticosteroids and combinations between 2002 and 2008 were obtained from the IMS sales database. ...

Medium-term sales and operations as well as medium to short-term production planning in customer order driven production processes are performed using a cascading planning process. A lack of coordination and feedback between different planning phases causes problems with a negative effect on costs in production that originate from unfeasible production programs. Based on a system for the classi...

We study stochastic inventory planning systems with lost sales and censored demand under stationary and non-stationary settings. Contrary to classical inventory theory, we assume that no knowledge of demand is initially available, and lost sales in each period are unobservable. We take a non-parametric approach and propose adaptive inventory policies that generate a sequence of ordering decisio...

We consider the classical joint pricing and inventory control problem with lost-sales and censored demand in which the customer’s response to selling price and the demand distribution are not known a priori, and the only available information for decision-making is the past sales data. Conventional approaches, such as stochastic approximation, online convex optimization, and continuum-armed ban...

Digital distribution channels introduce several new strategic questions for the creative industries. Two notable questions are (1) how will participation in digital channels impact physical sales, and (2) where should digital releases occur relative to existing “physical” release dates. These questions are particularly salient for book publishing where firms have expressed concern that making e...

Today, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software systems are one the fastest growing segments of the business–software industry. They offer a single system linking all corporate operations, including planning, manufacturing, sales, vendor relations, inventory control, human resources, and accounting. Companies around the world spent billions of dollars and expended untold man-hours installing...

Design process is a key process in forming of product’s cost and if we notify to total design we will see all of the effective parameters in design activities. Design process is contented design planning, design inputs, design outputs, design review, design verification, design validation and design changes. This approach will help us to identify the cost parameters for managing, controlling an...

We consider periodic review inventory control problems in directed networks, primary examples of which are distribution systems and assembly systems. External demand could occur at each node. When inventory is insufficient to meet requirements at a node, a portion of this demand is backordered and the remaining is lost. External demands, as well as lead times for inventory purchase, assembly, a...

We investigate the sales and operations planning (S&OP) problem at Vestel Electronics, a major television manufacturer located in Turkey. The company’s product portfolio is very wide due to a large number of configuration options, and changes rapidly due to technological advances. Demand volatility is high and materials procurement requires long lead times. Hence, the S&OP process is critical f...