Simulation-based evolution of resupply and routing policies in rich vendor-managed inventory scenarios

Stefan Vonolfen (), Michael Affenzeller, Andreas Beham, Efrem Lengauer and Stefan Wagner

Central European Journal of Operations Research, 2013, vol. 21, issue 2, 379-400

Abstract: Vendor managed inventory combines inventory management and transportation. Compared to classical inventory management approaches, this strategy offers various degrees of freedom for the vendor while providing a certain service quality level for the customers. To capture the characteristics of rich real-world scenarios, our problem formulation consists of multiple customers, many products and stochastic product usages. Additionally, we also consider mixed formulations, where only a certain part of the customers is switched to a vendor managed inventory to allow a stepwise transition. We show that resupply and routing policies can be evolved autonomously for those scenarios using a simulation-based optimization approach. By combining inventory management and routing, the resulting policies aim to minimize costs and to maximize resource usage while maintaining a given service level. In order to validate our approach, we perform case studies and apply the evolved rules on a large-scale vendor managed inventory scenario for supermarkets. Furthermore, we show that our methodology can be used to perform a sensitivity analysis by considering the influence of exogenous and endogenous factors on the decision process, if a customer base should be transitioned to a vendor managed inventory. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2013

Keywords: Vendor managed inventory; Stochastic inventory routing; Simulation based optimization; Resupply and routing policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10100-011-0232-5

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