STOCKING, RESERVATION AND PRODUCTION POLICIES FOR MULTIPLE CUSTOMER CLASSES

摘要

In this paper we consider two classes of problems. The first class is a single period problem(such as seasonal items), in which there are two customer types, high margin and regular and weaddress the problem of finding the correct production quantity. The second class containsproducts with recurring demand, high and regular margin customers and the objective is to findthe appropriate reservation inventory (the level of inventory triggering a price increase forregular customers) which maximizes expected net revenue. For the first class of problems, wederive some properties of the optimal solution and suggest a near optimal enumeration method.In case of recurring demand, we use a simulation model to characterize the solution whichsuggests a reservation inventory for the high end customer. While critical point inventorymanagement has been reported in the multi-type customer’s scenario, in this paper, we modifythe critical point inventory management system by using a dynamic pricing strategy in order toavoid stock-outs and raise revenue, and eventually to improve the bottom line.