The multi-item newsboy problem is used to determine the value of two types of incomplete information, global information and product-mix information. It is shown that this value depends on the number of products, the existence of a budget restriction and the degree of substitutability. ? 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Consider a category of product variants distinguished by some attribute such as color or flavor. A retailer must construct an assortment for the category, i.e., select a subset variants to stock and determine purchase quantities for each offered variant. We analyze this problem using a multinomial logit model to describe the consumer choice process and a newsboy model to represent the retailer’...

A multi-product newsboy problem with uncertain demand and uncertain storage space is investigated under a warehousing chance constraint. It is assumed that indeterminacy may appear in demand and storage space due to rough estimation of their distributions by decision-maker. Uncertainty theory provides a new tool to deal with the human uncertainty. We develop an uncertain expected value programm...

In a typical inventory planning problem with a life cycle of only one planning period we incur the cost of production per unit produced, profit per unit sold, loss per unit not sold, and lost revenue per unit ordered but not matched due to the lack of availability. The goal is to find the inventory level that maximizes the expected net profit. Textbooks often use the newsboy problem to illustra...

A single period inventory model, also popularly known as the Newsboy or Christmas tree problem, is to decide the quantity of a single product to be manufactured or purchased for a single period such that the quantity maximizes (minimizes) the expected profit (cost) under stochastic demand. The earliest works in this area were those by Hadley and Whittin (1963) and Hodges and Moore (1970). The l...

We propose a solution methodology for the multi-product newsboy model with constraints that is based on quadratic programming and a triangular presentation of the area under the cumulative probability distribution function of the demand. The methodology allows easier application of this important inventory control model that could be of particular interest in supply chain management as well as...

Quality of decisions in inventory management problems depends on accuracy of parameter estimates used for decision making. In many situations, error in decision making is unavoidable. In such cases, understanding sensitivity of objective function to sub-optimal decisions is necessary for better implementation of the model. We study sensitivity of expected demand-supply mismatch cost to sub-opti...

This paper examines the extended two-echelon newsboy problem for a manufacturer and retailer in a supply chain with asymmetric market information. In this scenario, the retailer has better knowledge of the market s demand, and the manufacturer perceives the same demand. This applied model presents how the manufacturer can take advantage of the retailer s market information and improve the effic...

This paper considers a multi-periodic multi-shift call center staffing problem with two types of jobs: calls and emails. The arrival rate of calls is random and the workforce presents some flexibility: the agents can be affected to one job type in real-time. At each period of the day, a service quality constraint limits the waiting time for a call. The staffing problem is modeled as a newsboy-t...