Title: Replenishment policies for warehouse systems under cyclic demand

Authors: Kannan Nilakantan

Addresses: Indian Institute of Management-Trichy, NIT-Trichy Campus Post, Tanjore Road, Tiruchirappalli-620015, India

Abstract: This paper takes up the study of a distribution warehouse at the downstream end of a supply chain, from where the off-take of the product takes place. We study the behaviour of the warehouse system, in a discrete time-frame, for cyclical demand variations, and investigate its behaviour under different types of ordering/replenishment policies, and under practically achievable lags. Analytical solutions are obtained which provide good insights into the inherent characteristics of such replenishment policies. The last type of policy, of the moving average type, is shown to have superior performance characteristics compared to the other and conventional types.

Keywords: warehouse systems; performance evaluation; dynamic modelling; replenishment policies; cyclical demand; distribution warehouses.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBPSCM.2013.053491

International Journal of Business Performance and Supply Chain Modelling, 2013 Vol.5 No.2, pp.148 - 176

Published online: 30 Jan 2014 *

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