We study the joint replenishment problem (JRP) for M items under deterministic demand, with a minimum order quantity constraint for each item in the replenishment order. We first study an iterative procedure that proves to be not efficient in this case. Further, we derive bounds on the basic cycle time and propose an efficient global optimisation procedure to solve the JRP with constraints. Mor...

We consider an assemble-to-order system with multiple products, multiple components which may be demanded in different quantities by different products, batch ordering of components, random lead times, and lost sales. We model the system as an infinite-horizon Markov decision process under the discounted cost criterion. A control policy specifies when a batch of components should be produced (i...

Interdependence of minor ordering costs occurs in joint replenishment of inventory when the cost of placing an item in an order depends on which other items are also in the order. In this paper, we propose an evolutionary algorithm (EA) for joint replenishment of inventory which allows for the interdependence of minor ordering costs. Since solutions to the joint replenishment problem (JRP) can ...

Companies survive in saturated markets trying to be more productive and more efficient. In this context, to manage more accurately the finished goods inventories becomes critical for make to stock production systems companies. In this paper an inventory replenishment expert system with the objectives of improving quality service and reducing holding costs is proposed. The Inventory Replenishmen...

In this paper we address the general multi-period production/inventory problem with non-stationary stochastic demand and supplier lead time under service-level constraints. A replenishment cycle policy (Rn,Sn) is modeled, where Rn is the n-th replenishment cycle length and Sn is the respective order-up-to-level. Initially we extend an existing formulation for this policy in a way to incorporate...

An important phenomenon in supply chain management, known as the bullwhip effect, suggests that demand variability increases as one moves up a supply chain. This paper examines the influence of different replenishment policies on the occurrence of the bullwhip effect. The paper demonstrates that certain replenishment policies can in themselves be inducers of the bullwhip effect, while others in...

We consider the problem of determining (for a short lifecycle) retail product initial and replenishment order quantities that minimize the cost of lost sales, back orders, and obsolete inventory. We model this problem as a two-stage stochastic dynamic program, propose a heuristic, establish conditions under which the heuristic finds an optimal solution, and report results of the application of ...

This paper presents the feature-replenishment technique used by our 3D Feature Based Tracker (3DFBT). The 3DFBT is a distributed , agent-based system for real-time 3D visual motion tracking using stereo. Feature replenishment means that the system can nd new trackable features to replace those lost to noise and occlusion, and on new objects entering the scene, or revealed by dis-occlusion. This...