We consider the inventory-routing problem in a three-level distribution system with a single vendor, a single warehouse and many geographically dispersed retailers. In this problem, each retailer faces a demand at a deterministic, retailer-specific rate. The demand of each retailer is replenished either from the warehouse by a small vehicle or from the vendor bypassing the warehouse by a big ve...

This paper examines the interactions between routing and inventory-management decisions in a two-level supply chain consisting of a cross-docking warehouse and N retailers. Retailer demand is stochastic; i.e., normally distributed and independent across retailers and over time. Travel times are fixed between pairs of system sites. Every m time periods, system inventory is replenished at the war...

Almost all multi-echelon inventory models assume that demand not satis ed immediately can be backordered. In some situations this assumption is not realistic. For example, it may be more representative to model stockouts as lost sales when the retailers are in a competitive market and customers can easily turn to another rm when purchasing the good. Assuming lost sales at the retailers, we cons...

Considering the supply chain consists of one supplier and two retailers, we construct the system’s dynamic models which face stochastic demand in the case of non-lateral transshipment (NLT), unidirectional lateral transshipment (ULT) and bidirectional lateral transshipment (BLT). Numerical example simulation experiments of these models were run on Venple. We adopt customer demand satisfaction r...

In this paper we impose a capacity restriction on a multi-echelon joint location-inventory model. The setting is that of a single product manufacturer distributing its product to a number of warehouses, each of which is assigned to a number of retailers. There is no lateral supply between warehouses and they do not share retailers. The model simultaneously makes decisions on location and invent...

In this research, an integrated inventory problem is formulated for a single-vendor multiple-retailer supply chain that works according to the vendor managed inventory policy. The model is derived based on the economic order quantity in which shortages with penalty costs at the retailers` level is permitted. As predicting customer demand is the most important problem in inventory systems and th...

We study the impact of multilateral private information about inventory levels in twoechelon supply chain environments. We find that greater bargaining power of the downstream chain member promotes the efficiency of supply chain in terms of operational cost. More specifically, we focus on two polar cases: i) multiple suppliers with limited inventories supplying to a single retailer; and ii) a s...

Generally, the inventory routing problem occurs in a supply chain where customers consider the supplier responsible for inventory replenishment. In this situation, the supplier finds the answer to questions regarding the time and quantity of delivery to the customer as well as the sequence of customers in the routes. Considering the effect of production decisions on answering these questions, t...

Simultaneous reductions in inventory of raw materials, work-in-process, and finished items have recently become a major focus in supply chain management. Vendor-managed inventory is a well-known practice in supply chain collaborations, in which manufacturer manages inventory at the retailer and decides about the time and replenishment. In this paper, an integrated vendor-managed inventory model...

This paper presents a three-level supply chain model which includes single supplier, several distribution centers and sets of retailers. For this purpose, by adopting the queuing approach, a mixed nonlinear integer programming model is formulated. The proposed model follows minimizing the total cost of the system by determining: 1) the number and location of distribution centers between candida...