This paper examines static and dynamic policies for replenishing and allocating inventories amongst N retailers located along a fixed delivery route. Each retailer faces independent, normally-distributed period demand and incurs a proportional holding or backorder cost on end-of-period...

A one-warehouse N-retailer deterministic inventory system is examined. The objective is to determine the stocking policy which minimizes average system cost per unit time over the infinite time horizon. Necessary properties of an optimal policy are derived, and optimal solutions for the...

We are indebted to Jack Muckstadt and Howard Singer for calling our attention to two errors in [Graves, S. C., Schwarz, L. B. 1977. Single cycle continuous review policies for arborescent production/inventory systems. Management Sci. 23 (5, January) 529-540.].

More than twenty years after the publication of the Linear Decision Rule (LDR) of Holt, Modigliani, Muth, and Simon (HMMS), the LDR remains an implementation failure. No company is reported to be using it. This paper hypothesizes that the reason for this failure may be a very simple one: the...

This paper develops and analyzes a principal-agent model for product specification and production motivated by Ücore buyingÝ decisions at an automobile manufacturer. The model focuses on two important elements of the ÜcoreÝ buyer's responsibility: (1) assessing the supplier's capability, and...

The authors are indebted to Professor Andrew Szendrovits of McMaster University for pointing out that [Szendrovits, A. Z. A comment on "Optimal and system myopic policies for production/inventory assembly systems". Management Science, this issue.] the definition of echelon holding cost in...

In the past few years, increasing numbers of automatic warehousing systems using computer-controlled stacker cranes have been installed. Our research concerns the scientific scheduling and design of these systems. There are three elements to scheduling: the assignment of multiple items to the...

In this paper optimal and near optimal policies are proposed for multi-echelon production/inventory assembly systems under continuous review with constant demand over an infinite planning horizon. Costs at each stage consist of a fixed charge per order or production setup plus a linear holding...

Rosenblatt and Kaspi (Rosenblatt, M. J., M. Kaspi. 1985. A dynamic programming algorithm for joint replenishment under general order cost functions. Management Sci. 31 (March) 369-373.) proposed a dynamic programming algorithm for determining joint ordering policies for a class of items with...