The effect of supply chain structure on inventory management: serial or parallel?
by Xiaoming Li; Qidong Cao; Thomas E. Griffin
International Journal of Operational Research (IJOR), Vol. 42, No. 1, 2021

Abstract: While the effect of lead time and its variability on the performance of supply chains continues to attract the attention of academicians and practitioners, the current research has been silent on how a topographic structural change of a supply chain simultaneously reduces both mean and variance of lead time. This study provides such an approach to concurrently reduce both mean and variance of lead time by a simple change on the supply chain structure from serial to parallel. We then show that such lead time reduction reduces mean and variance of lead time demand, which reduce cost in inventory management. We finally illustrate how our approach can be applied to more complex supply chains.

Online publication date: Tue, 21-Sep-2021

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