Title
Dynamic selling of quality-graded products under demand uncertainties
Abstract
This paper examines dynamic selling (DS) problems under demand uncertainties. Quality-graded products with fully downward substitutable demands are considered. Downward demand substitution indicates that demands for lower quality grade products can be fulfilled by either designated or higher quality grade products. In this dynamic selling problem, decision makers need to choose an optimal selling policy in each decision epoch. The objective is to identify an optimal policy for the dynamic selling of quality-graded inventory. DS problems are formulated as a discrete-time Markov decision process (MDP) model. In the MDP model, demand type and inventory levels are state variables. The objective is to maximize expected profits. In such a multi-dimensional dynamic decision problem, computational complexity is a chief concern. This study proves the structure of optimal policies that significantly reduce computational complexity. Performance of optimal dynamic selling policies is evaluated in detailed numerical studies.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1016/j.cie.2011.03.004
Computers & Industrial Engineering
Keywords
DocType
Volume
dynamic selling,dynamic selling problem,multi-dimensional dynamic decision problem,optimal policy,decision maker,quality-graded product,optimal dynamic selling policy,discrete-time markov decision process,inventory management,demand uncertainty,quality grades,computational complexity,decision epoch,optimal selling policy,decision problem,profitability,markov decision process
Journal
61
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
1
Computers & Industrial Engineering
2
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.37
27
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Hua-Hsuan Wu120.37
Cheng-Hung Wu2387.96
James T. Lin34710.57