For most multi-period decision-making problems, it is generally well-accepted that the influence of information about later periods on the optimal decision in the current period reduces as we move farther into the future. If and when this influence reduces to zero, the corresponding problem...

We study a supply chain with one supplier and many retailers that face exogenous end-customer demands. The supplier and the retailers all try to minimize their own inventory-related costs. In contrast to the retailers’ newsvendor-type ordering behavior (under which retailers may place orders...

Motivated by the recent success of integer programming based procedures for computing discrete forecast horizons, we consider two-product variants of the classical dynamic lot-size model. In the first variant, we impose a warehouse capacity constraint on the total ending inventory of the two...

Increased competition from store brands is forcing manufacturers to re-evaluate their strategies in regard to pricing and contracting with trade intermediaries. We analyze a supply chain in which a retailer accepts (with the appropriate contractual agreements) a national brand for resale and...

Fee-for-service (FFS) contracts, first introduced in 2004, dramatically changed the way the pharmaceutical distribution supply chains are designed, managed, and operated. Investment buying (IB), forward buying in anticipation of drug price increases, used to be the way the distributors made most...

We investigate how the retailer's inventory policy affects the total cost of a serial supply chain. When the retailer uses the locally optimal (s,S) policy, there is randomness in order time and order quantity to the supplier whereas the supplier sees randomness only in order quantity for the...

We study a supply chain with one supplier and many retailers that face exogenous end-customer demands. The supplier and the retailers all try to minimize their own inventory-related costs. In contrast to the retailers' newsvendor-type ordering behavior (under which retailers may place orders...