This paper presents a discrete time model of a multi-stage production system that faces two major types of uncertainties: the output rate at each production stage and the demand for the finished product. Our goal is to analyze the impact of these uncertainties on the production level and on the...

The value of information sharing and how it could address the bullwhip effect have been the subject of studies in the literature. Most of these studies used different forms of demand models, assuming that no order smoothing was used by the retailer and that the supplier has full knowledge of the...

We have an inventory to manage. The scenario is standard in all respects save one. Instead of arriving unannounced, customers provide advance warning of their demands. How should we use this information, and what is its effect on system performance? The answers turn out to be strikingly simple....

This paper examines several different policies for an inventory control problem in which the demand process is nonstationary and partially observed. The probability distribution for the demand in each period is determined by the state of a Markov chain, the core process. However, the state of...

We formulate a generalized model of dynamic pricing and lot-sizing by a reseller who sells a perishable good. We assume that when it is economic to backlog demand, the reseller can plan for periods of shortage during which demand can be partially backordered. When the good is highly perishable,...

Traditional inventory models, with a few exceptions, do not account for the existence of inventory record inaccuracy (IRI), and those that do treat IRI as random. This study explores IRI observed both within and across product categories and retail stores. Examining nearly 370,000 inventory...

Many organizations have only recently recognized that sharing information with other members in their supply chain can lead to signficant reduction in the total costs.Usually these information flows are incorporated into existing operating policies at the various parties.In this paper we argue...

The two management set parameters which determine the performance of a material requirements planning (MRP) system are the lead time and the safety stock. The appropriate values of these parameters are influenced by the accuracy of forecasts over the lead time, the variability of processing time...

We consider a multicomponent, single-product assemble-to-order (ATO) system that faces frequent, component-based technology innovations. For each component, there are two technologies with overlapping life cycles coexisting in the market. All cost parameters associated with each technology...

This paper considers the periodic review inventory problem for which one or more parameters of the demand distribution are unknown with a known prior distribution chosen from the natural conjugate family. The Bayesian formulation of this problem results in a dynamic program with a...