F many companies, inventory record inaccuracy is a major obstacle to achieving operational excellence. In this paper, we consider an inventory system in which inventory records are inaccurate. The manager makes inventory inspection and replenishment decisions at the beginning of each period. There is a cost associated with each inspection. If an inspection is performed, inventory records are al...

We study ex ante information sharing in a supply chain consisting of a downstream retailer and a maketo-stock upstream manufacturer. The retailer has imperfect demand information and may choose to share it with the manufacturer. Based on the information sharing arrangement, the manufacturer makes the wholesale price and the stocking level decisions. Then the retailer decides the order quantity ...

We consider an assemble-to-order generalized M -system with multiple components and multiple products, batch ordering of components, random lead times, and lost sales. We model the system as an infinite-horizon Markov decision process and seek an optimal control policy, which specifies when a batch of components should be produced and whether an arriving demand for each product should be satisf...

In this paper, we consider pricing schemes at an M/M/1 queue with infinite potential demand but where the number of customers in the queue depends on both the price and the offered quality of service (QoS). Our model aims at comparing the optimal revenue for three different strategies: first the case of a fixed price; second the case where there is a threshold on the queue occupancy such that a...

This article analyzes a model of a multiechelon inventory system. The exogenous demands form Markov-modulated Poisson processes. That is, the demand rates are functions of an underlying Markov chain. Each location follows a base-stock policy which is independent of the state of the underlying Markov chain. We employ the exogenous transit mechanism introduced by Zipkin [7) and Svoronos and Zipki...

W consider a two-echelon inventory system with a capacitated centralized production facility and several distribution centers (DCs). Both production and transportation times are stochastic with general distributions. Demand arrives at each DC according to an independent Poisson process and is backlogged if the DC is out of stock. We allow different holding and backlog costs at the different DCs...

We study a two-echelon supply chain with one warehouse and N (nonidentical) retailers facing stochastic demand. An easy-to-implement inventory policy, the so-called power-of-two (POT) policy, is proposed to manage inventory for the system. To maintain a certain service level, safety stocks are kept at the warehouse and each retailer outlet to buffer random demand. Our analysis highlights the im...

This paper deals with the question of optimal inventory sizes in a compétitive environment in which the demand for a product at a vendor dépends on the inventory level of the product at that vendor relative to the inventories of the same product held by other competing vendors. The total demand for the product at all vendors is assumed to be fixed. This question is examined for two different re...

This paper investigates a capacity planning strategy that collects commitments to purchase before the capacity decision and uses the acquired advance sales information to decide on the capacity. In particular, we study a profit-maximization model in which a manufacturer collects advance sales information periodically prior to the regular sales season for a capacity decision. Customer demand is ...