We consider a single-distributor multi-retailer inventory system in six operating scenarios for a finite horizon. Five scenarios are in decentralized control and the other one is in centralized control. Approximate dynamic programming (ADP) procedures are developed to obtain system performances...

In Nash bargaining problem, due to fairness concerns of players, instead of maximizing the sum of utilities of all players, an implementable solution should satisfy some axioms or characterizations. Such a solution can result in the so-called price of fairness, because of the reduction in the...

This paper studies the inventory management problem of dual channels operated by one vendor. Demands of dual channels are inventory-level-dependent. We propose a multi-period stochastic dynamic programming model which shows that under mild conditions, the myopic inventory policy is optimal for...

We conducted experiments in a multi-echelon inventory system with two scenarios: no information sharing and full information sharing. The results indicate that the bullwhip effect persists even after traditional causes have been excluded. Moreover, full information sharing cannot guarantee...