Inventory models with lateral transshipments : a review

Lateral transshipments within an inventory system are stock movements between locations of the same echelon. These transshipments can be conducted periodically at predetermined points in time to proactively redistribute stock, or they can be used reactively as a method of meeting demand which cannot be satised from stock on hand. The elements of an inventory system considered, e.g. size, cost structures and service level denition, all in uence the best method of transshipping. Models of many dierent systems have been considered. This paper provides a literature review which categorizes the research to date on lateral transshipments, so that these dierences can be understood and gaps within the literature can be identied

Application of game theory in inventory management

Game theory has been successfully applied in supply chain management problems due to its capacity of modeling situations where companies have to make strategic decisions about their production planning, inventory control and distribution systems. In particular, this article presents the application of game theory in inventory management. First, we presente the basics concepts of non-cooperative and cooperative game theory. Then, we present inventory models by means of game theory. For each model, we provide its configuration, the solution concept implemented, and the existence and uniqueness of the equilibrium used.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

Application of game theory in inventory management

Game theory has been successfully applied in supply chain management problems due to its capacity of modeling situations where companies have to make strategic decisions about their production planning, inventory control and distribution systems. In particular, this article presents the application of game theory in inventory management. First, we presente the basics concepts of non-cooperative and cooperative game theory. Then, we present inventory models by means of game theory. For each model, we provide its configuration, the solution concept implemented, and the existence and uniqueness of the equilibrium used.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

Cooperation and profit allocation in distribution chains

We study the coordination of actions and the allocation of profit in distribution chains under decentralized control. We consider distribution chains in which a single supplier supplies goods for replenishment of stocks of several retailers who, in turn, sell these goods to their own separate markets. The goal of the supplier and the retailers is to maximize their individual profits. Since the optimal joint profit under centralized control is larger than the sum of the individual optimal profits under decentralized control, cooperation among firms by means of coordination of actions may improve individual profits. The effects of cooperation are studied by means of cooperative games. For each distribution chain we define a corresponding cooperative game and study its properties. Among others we show that such games are balanced. Based on the nice core structure a stable solution concept for these games is proposed and its properties are interpreted in terms of the underlying distribution chain. \u

Supply Chain

Traditionally supply chain management has meant factories, assembly lines, warehouses, transportation vehicles, and time sheets. Modern supply chain management is a highly complex, multidimensional problem set with virtually endless number of variables for optimization. An Internet enabled supply chain may have just-in-time delivery, precise inventory visibility, and up-to-the-minute distribution-tracking capabilities. Technology advances have enabled supply chains to become strategic weapons that can help avoid disasters, lower costs, and make money. From internal enterprise processes to external business transactions with suppliers, transporters, channels and end-users marks the wide range of challenges researchers have to handle. The aim of this book is at revealing and illustrating this diversity in terms of scientific and theoretical fundamentals, prevailing concepts as well as current practical applications

A General Framework for Cooperation under Uncertainty

In this paper, we introduce a general framework for situations with decision making under uncertainty and cooperation possibilities. This framework is based upon a two stage stochastic programming approach. We show that under relatively mild assumptions the cooperative games associated with these situations are totally balanced and, hence, have non-empty cores. Finally, we consider several example situations, which can be studied using this general framework.Two-stage stochastic programming;cooperative game theory;core

On Transshipment Games with Identical Newsvendors

In a transshipment game, supply chain agents cooperate to transship surplus products. This note studies the effect of size of transshipment coalitions on the optimal production/order quantities. It characterizes these quantities for transshipment games with identical newsvendors and normally distributed market demands. It also gives a closed form formula for equal allocation in their cores

Cooperation between Multiple Newsvendors with Warehouses

This study considers a supply chain that consists of n retailers, each of them facing a newsvendor problem, m warehouses and a supplier.The retailers are supplied with a single product via some warehouses.In these warehouses, the ordered amounts of goods of these retailers become available after some lead time.At the time that the goods arrive at the warehouses, demand realizations are known by the retailers.The retailers can increase their expected joint profits by coordinating their orders and making allocations after demand realization.For this setting, we consider an associated cooperative game between the retailers.We show that this associated cooperative game has a nonempty core. Finally, we study a variant of this game, where the retailers are allowed to leave unsold goods at the warehouses.supply chain management;newsvendor;warehouse;game theory;balancedness

Supply chain collaboration

In the past, research in operations management focused on single-firm analysis. Its goal was to provide managers in practice with suitable tools to improve the performance of their firm by calculating optimal inventory quantities, among others. Nowadays, business decisions are dominated by the globalization of markets and increased competition among firms. Further, more and more products reach the customer through supply chains that are composed of independent firms. Following these trends, research in operations management has shifted its focus from single-firm analysis to multi-firm analysis, in particular to improving the efficiency and performance of supply chains under decentralized control. The main characteristics of such chains are that the firms in the chain are independent actors who try to optimize their individual objectives, and that the decisions taken by a firm do also affect the performance of the other parties in the supply chain. These interactions among firms’ decisions ask for alignment and coordination of actions. Therefore, game theory, the study of situations of cooperation or conflict among heterogenous actors, is very well suited to deal with these interactions. This has been recognized by researchers in the field, since there are an ever increasing number of papers that applies tools, methods and models from game theory to supply chain problems

On the Convexity of News Vendor Games

This study considers a simple newsvendor situation that consists of n retailers, all selling the same item with common purchasing costs and common selling prices.Groups of retailers might increase their expected joint profit by inventory centralization, which means that they make a joint order to satisfy total future demand.The resulting newsvendor games are shown to have non-empty cores in the literature.This study investigates convexity of newsvendor games.We focus our analysis on the class of newsvendor games with independent symmetric unimodal demand distributions after providing several examples outside this class that are not convex.Several interesting subclasses, containing convex games only, are identified.Additionally, we illustrate that these results can not be extended to all games in this class.game theory;inventory centralization;newsvendor;convexity