This paper proposes a new methodology to solve partially observed inventory problems. Generally, these problems have infinitedimensional states that are conditional distribution of the inventory level. Our methodology involves linearizing the state transitions via unnormalized probabilities. It...

This paper proposes a new methodology to solve partially observed inventory problems. Generally, these problems have infinite dimensional states that are conditional distribution of the inventory level. Our methodology involves linearizing the state transitions via unnormalized probabilities. It...

We study infinite-horizon stochastic inventory problems with general demand distributions and piecewise linear concave ordering costs. Such costs arise in the important cases of quantity discounts or multiple suppliers. We consider the case of concave cost involving two linear segments. This...

This paper investigates a decentralized assembly system that consists of one manufacturer and multiple suppliers who produce the complementary components. In a single selling season, the manufacturer initially sets a vendor inventory liability period (VILP) to control the suppliers' delivery...

Today, emerging technologies such as big data analytics and block-chain can improve supply chain operations by updating information to reduce demand uncertainty and improving data quality. We conduct a theoretical exploration of the values provided by such technologies in the context of a...

The classical newsvendor problem seeks to minimize the expected inventory cost or maximize the expected profit. But optimizing an expected value alone does not fully capture the stochastic nature of the newsvendor problem. Inspired by the higher-moment analyses explored in finance literature, we...

The book is concerned with the problems of inventory and supply chain decision making with information updating over time. The models considered include inventory decisions with multiple sources and delivery modes, supply-contract design and evaluation, contracts with exercise price,...

We study a drop-shipping supply chain in which the retailer receives a customer's order and the supplier fills it. In such a chain, the supplier keeps inventory and bears inventory risks; the retailer focuses on marketing and customer acquisition, and forwards the orders to the supplier. The...

We study a single-period two-stage service-constrained supply chain with an information update. The buyer has two purchasing instances: before and after the forecast update. The procurement cost at the second stage is uncertain at the first stage. We determine the optimal ordering policy with...

Business environments change over time. They are cyclic, show seasonality or just evolve over time. This is certainly true for customer demand. As a result, stationary demand distributions are crude approximations of true customer behavior at best. Yet, most classical stochastic inventory models...