Abstract
A multi-echelon inventory system implies the existence of a hierarchy of stocking locations, and the dependence and interaction between them. We consider a multi-echelon, spare-part inventory management problem with outsourcing and backordering. The problem is characterized by deterministic repair time/cost, and supply and demand that lie within prescribed intervals and that vary over time. The objective is to minimize the total inventory and transportation costs. We develop a network model for problem analysis and present a network flow algorithm for solving the problem. We prove that the WagnerWhitin property, known for the lot-sizing problem, can be extended to the spare-part inventory management problem under study.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 43-51 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | International Journal of Production Economics |
| Volume | 132 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2011 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We are grateful to two anonymous referees for their helpful comments on an earlier version of our paper. Cheng was supported in part by the Logistics Research Center of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University .
Funding
We are grateful to two anonymous referees for their helpful comments on an earlier version of our paper. Cheng was supported in part by the Logistics Research Center of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University .
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Hong Kong Polytechnic University |
Keywords
- Backorders
- Multi-suppliers
- Network flow algorithm
- Network model
- Spare-part inventory management
- WagnerWhitin property