We introduce a real-life problem faced by the blood bank of the Austrian Red Cross for Eastern Austria: how to cost-effectively organize the periodic delivery of blood products to Austrian hospitals. We present various solution approaches, based on integer programming and variable neighborhood search, and empirically evaluate their performance. Moreover, we study the potential value of switchin...

This paper examines the relationship between distributor backorder performance and its inventory levels under Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) in a supply chain that consists of distributors and manufacturers. We construct a principal-agent model to show that distributors' inventory managed by manufacturers can be used to induce distributor efforts, which are unobservable to the manufacturers, in...

This paper considers a two-period model in which two labour-managed firms can use inventory investment as a strategic device. In the first period, each firm simultaneously and independently chooses how much it sells in the current market and the level of inventory it holds for the second-period market. The paper shows the reaction curves in the model with inventories. The paper finds that inven...

  This paper aims to evaluate inventory cost of a Two-echelon serial supply chain system under vendor managed inventory program with stochastic demand, and examine the effect of environmental factors on the cost of overall system. For this purpose, we consider a two-echelon serial supply chain with a manufacturer and a retailer. Under Vendor managed inventory program, the decision on inventory ...

In this paper we present a quantity-based model for integrated inventory replenishment and shipment consolidation decisions under vendor managed inventory. Assuming the vendor uses a special reorder point, order-up-to level, or ( , ) s S policy for inventory control and adopts a quantity-based dispatching strategy under stochastic settings, we build its simulation model. By simulating in Arena ...