In today’s dynamic market numerous dynamic influencing factors have seriously aggravates the difficulties of inventory planning of the complex distribution networks. This paper proposes a simulation-based hybrid approach for the optimization of the inventory policies in complex distribution networks. The initial multi-echelon inventory policies are handed over to a simulation model, which is ca...

Facility location problems form an important class of integer programming problems, with applications in the telecommunication, distribution and transportation industries. In this paper we are concerned with a particular type of facility location problem in which there exist two echelons of facilities. Each facility in the second echelon has limited capacity and can be supplied by only one faci...

The theory on multi-echelon production/inventory systems is a core theory within supply chain management. It provides useful insights for design of supply chains and may be used for tactical and operational planning decisions. The multi-echelon theory started with the seminal paper of Clark and Scarf in 1960. In this tutorial, we describe for which systems optimal policies are known, which key ...

C often face nonstationary demand due to product life cycles and seasonality, and nonstationary demand complicates supply chain managers’ inventory decisions. This paper proposes a simple heuristic for determining stocking levels in a serial inventory system. Unlike the exact optimization algorithm, the heuristic generates a near-optimal solution by solving a series of independent single-stage ...

In Multi-Echelon Vehicle Routing Problems the delivery from one or more depots to the customers is managed by routing and consolidating the freight through intermediate depots, called satellites. This family of problems differs from Multi-Echelon Distribution Systems present in the literature. In the latter the attention is focused on the flow assignment among the levels only, while we also con...

We consider customer response time minimization in a two-echelon supply chain system with stochastic demand where the first echelon consists of one production plant and the other of one retailer. Traditionally models of this type only seek to minimize traditional operating costs. However, because of the highly competitive nature of the market, it is also essential for the manufacturer to respon...

A stream is a continuous version of a supply chain. It is like a series inventory system, but stock can be held at any point along a continuum, not just at discrete stages. We assume stationary parameters and aim to minimize the long-run average total cost. We show that a stationary continuous-stage echelon base-stock policy is optimal. That is, at each geographic point along the supply stream,...

Improved walking comfort has been linked with better bio-mimicking of the prosthetic ankle. This study investigated if a hydraulic ankle/foot can provide enough motion in both the sagittal and frontal planes during level and camber walking and if the hydraulic ankle/foot better mimics the biological ankle moment pattern compared with a fixed ankle/foot device. Five active male unilateral trans-...

We consider an M/G/∞ exchangeable-item repair system with spares and ample servers to which arriving customers bring groups of random size B identical items for repair. An exact formula for the waiting time distribution and a computationally efficient approximation are presented for this system. From this, we not only have the standard fillrate, but a practical extension of this concept to a 'f...

The municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal system is the key for building smart city. In MSW system, allocated among plants in first echelon, and then derivatives (incineration residues RDF) are between markets second echelon. two-echelon optimal allocation of two objectives, cost environmental impact, should be considered. Considering uncertainty this paper constructs a grey fuzzy multi-objectiv...