A simulation study of on-line automatic sensing and detecting damaged deteriorating inventory with random lifetime and demand

Managing perishable items listed in an inventory becomes nowadays a quite important and challenging task. Although each perishable item is usually assigned a corresponding expiration-date label, unexpected events like human errors, dynamic temperature conditions, improper maintenance, etc., can drastically deteriorate products quality and properties and cause significant losses both to supplier and customer. Analytic inventory models for deteriorating items with stochastic demand and various environmental characteristics have been developed. Another efficient solution includes automatic sensing and detecting of spoiled items. Most sophisticated labels that combine both chemical and electronic functionality with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology could remotely warn users and automated systems whenever stability problems have occurred. Yet, technological solutions involving automatic labelling devices require additional scientific investigation and scrutiny by means of the simulation theory, which mainly has not been attempted so far. Our research presents a simulation study of providing a single product type of perishable inventory with general AD (automatic device), which on-line senses and detects spoiled items. Experimental design is outlined and numerical results presented and analyzed.