INVENTORY POLICY FOR A SUPPLY CHAIN WITH MULTIPLE TYPES OF CUSTOMERS, DEMAND AND REVIEW POLICIES

摘要

The research is motivated by industry practice in carpet retail, where there are two broad classes ofcustomers. One class of customers is private homes which offers higher margins, but has a smallerpropensity to wait. The other class is commercial establishments which offer lower margins withhigher order size, but have a higher propensity to wait, while requiring that all demand be met within48 hours. Because of the two customer streams and the different shortage costs and margins, thisproblem offers new challenges in deriving an optimal policy. We use simulation to study thisproblem.