This paper shows how to allocate a limited supply of inventory in a centralized distribution system with multiple retailers subject to minimal supply commitments and maximum delivery limits for each retailer. The objective is to maximize the number of units sold by all retailers in one time period. The analysis is done by building on a classical result of Derman. The demand at each retailer is ...

We address a problem of inventory management of spare parts in the context of a large energy company, producer of oil and gas. Spare parts are critical for assuring operational conditions in offshore platforms. About 200,000 different items are held in several inventory plants. The inventory system implemented at the company corresponds to a min-max system. The control parameters are decided ba...

This paper establishes a new preservation property of supermodularity in a class of two-dimensional parametric optimization problems, where the constraint sets may not be lattices. This property and its extensions unify several results in the literature and provide powerful tools to analyze a variety of operations models including a two-product coordinated pricing and inventory control problem ...

This paper presents a two-period model to analyze the dynamic pricing behavior of two profit-maximizing firms that have equal inventories of perfectly substitutable and perishable products. Two versions of the problem are studied. In the first version, firms simultaneously announce their first period prices, observe the sales each makes, and then simultaneously announce their second period pric...

While the development and application of inventory control models of deterioration products is one of the main concerns of researchers and practitioners, most studies done in this field have focused on inventory models under fixed supply lead time assumption. In this paper, at first we study researches done in inventory control of deteriorating items and classify them based on modeling approach...

Inventory shrinkage is a common problem in the management of returnable containers. RFID-based container tracking systems have been proposed as a possible solution. Benefits of RFID-based tracking of returnable transport items such as pallets, kegs and boxes are documented in several case studies, but have so far hardly been analyzed from a theoretical perspective. In this article, we analyze t...

Manufacturers make production decisions and carry inventory to satisfy uncertain demand. When holding and shortage costs are high, carrying inventory could be even more expensive for a capacitated production system. Recent developments in information technology and sales strategies enabled firms to acquire, collect, or induce advance demand information. We address a periodic-review, stochastic,...

With the emerging of global economy and the development of the technology in computer and communications, the enterprises are facing to new opportunities but also more challenges, which led to the concept of SC (Supply Chain). By controlling and collaborating each part of the supply chain, SCM (Supply Chain Management) reaches the aim of reducing the cost, improving the quality as well as servi...

Consider a multiple booking class airline-seat inventory control problem that relates to either a single flight leg or to multiple flight legs. During the time before the flight, the airline may face the problems of (1) what are the suitable prices for the opened booking classes, and (2) when to close those opened booking classes. This work deals with these two problems by only using the pricin...

We consider the joint pricing and inventory control problem for a single product with a finite horizon and periodic review. The demand distribution in each period is determined by an exogenous Markov chain. Pricing and ordering decisions are made at the beginning of each period and all shortages are backlogged. The surplus costs as well as fixed and variable costs are state dependent. We show t...