Title
Inventory management of multiple items with irregular demand: A case study
Abstract
We present the case of a Greek commercial enterprise facing the problem of managing the inventories of thousands of different items, supplied by more than 20 European and Asian manufacturers and sold to a large number of different-type customers. A key feature of the problem is that the demand for the vast majority of items is intermittent and lumpy, thus not allowing the use of the usual normal or Poisson distributions. The paper describes the solutions given to several practical problems in the course of developing an easy-to-use yet effective and all-encompassing inventory control system. Emphasis is placed on the accurate modeling of demand by means of a gamma distribution with a probability mass at zero or a package Poisson distribution for very-slow-moving items. Using those models and simple quantitative tools we develop an efficient procedure for approximate but quite accurate determination of the base stock levels that achieve the desired fill rates in the proposed periodic review system. We briefly describe the computerized implementation of the new system and the very encouraging results.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1016/j.ejor.2009.12.022
European Journal of Operational Research
Keywords
Field
DocType
Supply chain management,Inventory,Case study,Gamma distribution,Periodic review,Base stock
Probability mass function,Operations research,Inventory control,Supply chain management,Gamma distribution,Poisson distribution,Commercial enterprise,Mathematics,Operations management
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
205
2
0377-2217
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
12
0.78
5
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
George Nenes1848.32
Sofia Panagiotidou2847.13
George Tagaras317819.37