Improving supply chain performance:Real-time demand information and flexible deliveries

摘要

It is easier to monitor local inventories and plan personnel and labor for scheduled orders and delivery. However, it can create operational inefficiencies. 1.First, a location cannot order if it is not in one of its order periods. 2.Second, real-time customer demand information cannot be transmitted immediately to upstream locations which may lead to inefficient order decisions at upstream stages. Assume that the supply chain partners share a common goal of optimizing system wide performance, which only have local information at the operational planning level. There is a central planner who determines all inventory control parameters and each stage generates replenishment orders based on the local demand and inventory information. It is important to evaluate the current supply chain performance and to decide whether to invest to improve the same. This study considers two improvement strategies namely, 1. Expanding the information flow by acquiring real-time demand information, or 2. Accelerating the material flow by providing flexible deliveries. The paper aims to answer this question by analyzing a periodic-review, serial inventory system with generally distributed one-period demands.