Title: Inventory models in the mobile business environment

Authors: Irena Okhrin, Knut Richter

Addresses: Department of Industrial Management, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), 15230 Germany. ' Department of Industrial Management, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), 15230 Germany

Abstract: In this paper we investigate what impact the deployment of wireless technologies can have on a company that manufactures a durable product and customises it according to the individual wishes of its customers. We derive several models for a special case when a company representative visits customers to specify their orders. The agent sends all modifications of the order to the corporate back-end system from his mobile device via the wireless network. Only after this new information is available to the manufacturer, can he start fulfilling of the customer|s order. The deployment of mobile solutions allows overlapping of the process of visiting the customers and the production process, which improves service quality and increases customer satisfaction.

Keywords: inventory models; dynamic lot-sizing models; mobile business; wireless technologies; industrial logistics; customer satisfaction.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2007.013215

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2007 Vol.3 No.4, pp.461 - 480

Published online: 12 Apr 2007 *

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