סמינר מחלקתי - דינה סמירנוב

Two changes have affected supply chains in recent years. The first is the growing use of single-period inventory models, which is due to the increase in product variety along with shrinkage of product lifecycles. Current demand profiles often include short-term highly uncertain demand for fad products or for a particular model, making single-period inventory models more relevant than ever.

The second change is the recent advancements in Information Technology, such as EDI systems and RFID tags, which provide decision makers in the supply chain with extensive, accurate, and often real-time, data. In particular, for single-period systems it has become possible to review the stock level more frequently than once in the sales period, thus enabling a faster and more exact reaction to demand fluctuations, essentially creating multiple sub-periods.

In this talk we will be focusing on a single-location system with a possibility for an additional review during the period and a replenishment opportunity, based on in-cycle sales information, at that time.

We find the optimal inventory and timing decisions through an analytical approach and an exact and tractable solution algorithm. Our model is applicable to a wide range of businesses such as bakeries, retail of seasonal products, perishable or technology-related goods, and the print industry.

In addition to the theoretical model, we conducted a pilot field study based on real sales data obtained from a large magazine distributor, and implemented our proposed model.