Title: Design and formulation of an inventory management system for raw materials by using multi-criteria methods and fuzzy approach

Authors: Olga Patricia Cobo Betancourt; John Willmer Escobar; William Ocampo Duque

Addresses: Department of Industrial and Civil Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali, Calle 18 # 118-250, Colombia ' Department of Industrial and Civil Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali, Calle 18 # 118-250, Colombia; Department of Accounting and Finance, Universidad del Valle, Calle 4B # 36-00, Cali, Colombia ' Department of Industrial and Civil Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali, Calle 18 # 118-250, Colombia

Abstract: Companies worldwide are interested in inventory policies as essential components of the value chain. Inventories of raw materials are required to meet the given demand fluctuations and to support the delivery times of suppliers (lead time). This paper proposes a model for determining an inventory management system for raw materials by using multicriteria methods and fuzzy parameters. The raw materials are classified, and inventory policies are determined, with optimal levels for a company, which are required to have with effective methodologies leading better management of these aspects and better control of their standards. The proposed approach generates an ABC classification by using a multicriteria scoring method, and then inventory policies are defined by using a fuzzy strategy. The proposed approach has been tested in a real company producing items for personal hygiene absorbents and cosmetics. The obtained results are promising for multinational companies.

Keywords: deterministic demand; stochastic demand; inventory cost; ABC inventory classification; intermittent demand; lead time; MRP.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2022.125678

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2022 Vol.43 No.1, pp.131 - 152

Received: 08 Oct 2019
Accepted: 15 Jul 2020

Published online: 26 Sep 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article