I. Konstantaras

Inventory models with ramp type demand rate, partial backlogging and Weibull deterioration rate

In this paper, an inventory model with general ramp type demand rate, time dependent (Weibull) deterioration rate and partial backlogging of unsatisfied demand is considered. The model is studied under the following different replenishment policies: (a) starting with no shortages and (b) starting with shortages. The model is fairly general as the demand rate, up to the time point of its stabilization, is a general function of time. The backlogging rate is any non-increasing function of the waiting time up to the next replenishment. The optimal replenishment policy for the model is derived for both the above mentioned policies.

Economic ordering policy for an item with imperfect quality subject to the in-house inspection

This article considers a production/inventory system where each lot of items received or produced contains a random proportion of defective units, items of imperfect quality. The purchaser contacts a 100% inspection in order to identify the perfect (acceptable) quality items. The model examines the following two options for the imperfect quality items: sell them to a secondary market, as a single batch and at a price lower to that of new ones, or rework them at some cost and then use them as new ones to satisfy demand. After inspection, the good quality items are sent to the working inventory warehouse in batches of equal size. For both of these cases, the optimal ordering lot size and the optimal number of batches are obtained. A numerical example illustrates the solution procedure and sensitivity analysis results are reported.

Lot-sizing for a single-product recovery system with backordering

In this article, a single-product recovery system is studied. Used products are collected from customers and kept at the recoverable inventory warehouse for future recovery. The constant demand rate can be satisfied either by newly produced products or by recovered ones (serviceable inventory), which are regarded as perfectly as the new ones. Excess demand is completely backordered. Following an exact analytical approach, the optimal production and recovery policy is obtained. A numerical cost comparison of this model with the corresponding one without backordering is also performed. The results are general, as they were valid for finite and infinite production and recovery rates.

Supply chain models for deteriorating products with ramp type demand rate under permissible delay in payments

In this paper an order level inventory model for deteriorating items with general ramp type demand rate under conditions of permissible delay in payments is proposed. In this model shortages are allowed and partially backlogged. The backlogging rate is variable and dependent on the waiting time for the next replenishment. Its study requires exploring the feasible ordering relations between the time parameters appeared, which leads to three models. For each model the optimal replenishment policy is determined. The sufficient conditions of the existence and uniqueness of the optimal solutions are also provided. Suitably selected numerical examples highlight the obtained results. Sensitivity analysis of the optimal solution with respect to major parameters of the system has been carried out and the implications are discussed.

Lot sizing for a single product recovery system with variable setup numbers

Inventory systems for joint remanufacturing and manufacturing have recently received considerable attention. In such systems, used products are collected from customers and are kept at the recoverable inventory warehouse for future remanufacturing. In this paper a production-remanufacturing inventory system is considered, where the demand can be satisfied by production and remanufacturing. The cost structure consists of the EOQ-type setup costs, holding costs and shortage costs. The model with no shortage case in serviceable inventory is first studied. The serviceable inventory shortage case is discussed next. Both models are considered for the case of variable setup numbers of equal sized batches for production and remanufacturing processes. For these two models sufficient conditions for the optimal type of policy, referring to the parameters of the models, are proposed.

Optimal policy and holding cost stability regions in a periodic review inventory system with manufacturing and remanufacturing options

In this paper a periodic review inventory model with finite horizon and remanufacturing, manufacturing options is studied. It is assumed that demand and cost parameters are constant and a sufficiently large quantity of used products is available at the beginning of the horizon. The model is studied within the class of policies with given remanufacturing and manufacturing set up and the optimal policy is obtained within this class. The policy specifies the period of switching from remanufacturing to manufacturing (switching period), the periods where remanufacturing and manufacturing activities take place and the corresponding lot sizes. An explicit formula for the cost function and some of its properties are established. Based on these, an algorithm which partitions the set of holding cost parameters into subsets, computes the optimal policy and constructs its corresponding stability regions on every such subset is proposed.

Order Level Inventory Models for Deteriorating Seasonable/Fashionable Products with Time Dependent Demand and Shortages

An order level inventory model for seasonable/fashionable products subject to a period of increasing demand followed by a period of level demand and then by a period of decreasing demand rate (three branches ramp type demand rate) is considered. The unsatisfied demand is partially backlogged with a time dependent backlogging rate. In addition, the product deteriorates with a time dependent, namely, Weibull, deterioration rate. The model is studied under the following different replenishment policies: (a) starting with no shortages and (b) starting with shortages. The optimal replenishment policy for the model is derived for both the above mentioned policies.

A random search heuristic for a multi-objective production planning

Real world production planning is involved in optimizing different objectives while considering a spectrum of parameters, decision variables, and constraints of the corresponding cases. This comes from the fact that production managers desire to utilize from an ideal production plan by considering a number of objectives over a set of technological constraints. This paper presents a new multi-objective production planning model which is proved to be NP-Complete. So a random search heuristic is proposed to explore the feasible solution space with the hope of finding the best solution in a reasonable time while extracting a set of Pareto-optimal solutions. Then each Pareto-optimal solution is considered as an alternative production plan in the hand of production manager. Both the modeling and the solution processes are carried out for a real world problem and the results are reported briefly. Also, performance of the proposed problem-specific heuristic is verified by comparing it with a multi-objective genetic algorithm on a set randomly generated test data.

Note on: An optimal ordering and recovery policy for reusable items

This paper deals with a joint EOQ and EPQ model where the stationary demand can be satisfied by remanufactured and newly purchased products. The model assumes that a proportion of the already used products is collected from customers and later is recovered for reuse. The remanufactured products are regarded as perfect as new ones. For this model Koh et al. [Koh, S. -G., Hwang, H., Sohn, K. -I., & Ko, C. -S. (2002). An optimal ordering and recovery policy for reusable items. Computers and Industrial Engineering, 43, 59-73] found closed form expressions for the economic order quantity for new products and the optimal inventory level where the recovery process starts. Further they proposed a numerical procedure, which calculates the optimal number of set up in both recovery and ordering processes. In this paper, we revisit Koh et al.s paper and following a different analysis we obtain closed form expressions for both optimal number of set up in the recovery and the ordering processes. The approach is explained by an example.

An inventory control model with stochastic review interval and special sale offer

Periodic review inventory models are widely used in practice, especially for inventory systems in which many different items are purchased from the same supplier. However, most of periodic review models have assumed a fixed length of the review periods. In practice, it is possible that the review periods are of a random (stochastic) length. This paper presents an inventory control model in the case of random review intervals and special sale offer from the supplier. The replenishment interval is assumed to obey from two different distributions, namely, exponential and uniform distributions. Also, shortages are allowed in the term of partial backordering. For this model, its convexity condition is discussed and closed form solutions are proposed.