In this paper, we study the stochastic transportation-inventory network design problem involving one supplier and multiple retailers. Each retailer faces some uncertain demand. Due to this uncertainty, some amount of safety stock must be maintained to achieve suitable service levels. However, risk-pooling benefits may be achieved by allowing some retailers to serve as distribution centers (and ...

An interesting class of production/inventory control problems considers a single product and a single stocking location, given a stochastic demand with a known non-stationary probability distribution. Under a widely-used control policy for this type of inventory system, the objective is to find the optimal number of replenishments, their timings and their respective order-up-to-levels that meet...

Supplying of blood and blood products is one of the most challenging issues in the healthcare system since blood is as extremely perishable and vital good and donation of blood is a voluntary work. In this paper, we propose a two-stage stochastic selective-covering-inventory-routing (SCIR) model to supply whole blood under uncertainty. Here, set of discrete scenarios are used to display uncerta...

We consider the problem of optimizing inventories for problems where the demand distribution is unknown, and where it does not necessarily follow a standard form such as the normal. We address problems where the process of deciding the inventory, and then realizing the demand, occurs repeatedly. The only information we use is the amount of inventory left over. Rather than attempting to estimate...

In this paper, the stochastic location-routing-inventory problem is considered in which retailers’ demands and lead-times are stochastic. Demand quantities follow Poisson distribution and lead-times are functions of the shortage quantity. It is also assumed that both retailers and distributors hold inventory and follow (S-1, S) inventory policy. According to these assumptions, we use METRIC (i....

This paper studies the optimal control of, interaction between, and relative value of two types of flexibility under Markov models of demand and production: process flexibility and inventory flexibility. In our model, process flexibility is generated by a multi-functional production facility that can produce two types of products, and inventory flexibility is manifested in firm-driven one-way p...

Abstract: We consider a dynamic pricing problem for a monopolistic company selling a perishable product when customer demand is uncertain and occurs in batches which must be fulfilled as a whole. The seller can price-discriminate between the batches of different size by setting different unit prices. The problem is modeled as a stochastic optimal control problem to find an inventory-contingent ...

We solve a rich logistical problem inspired from practice, in which a heterogeneous xed eet of vehicles is used for collecting recyclable waste from large containers over a nite planning horizon. Each container is equipped with a sensor, which communicates its level at the start of the day. Given a history of observations, a forecasting model is used to estimate the point demand forecasts as we...

This paper re-visits the Bayesian approach to test its efficacy in optimally designing the classical (s, Q) inventory model. A heuristic search of the unstructured (s, Q) decision space finds that one can indeed make a decent start by the Bayesian approach—and keep total cost nearly optimally low throughout.