Article: Retailer's optimal replenishment policy in a supply chain under partial trade credits and probabilistic supply disruptions Journal: International Journal of Supply Chain and Operations Resilience (IJSCOR) 2015 Vol.1 No.4 pp.388 - 415 Abstract: Most of the traders' planning and their inventory control efforts are directed towards running efficient logistic operations under normal conditions. At the same time, global traders are facing random supply disruptions due to some unusual circumstances like earthquake, mishandling in transport, shipping damage, misplacing products etc. that may result a risk in delivery of items. Unlike the existing researches, this paper tries to investigate retailer's inventory system in a supply chain by considering: a) the probabilistic supply disruptions in transport from the supplier to a retailer; b) two-level partial trade credit financing. The supplier offers full trade credit to the retailer and the retailer offers partial trade credit to his customers. The mathematical model for the present scenario is constructed and total cost incurred at the retailer is minimised using one-dimensional optimisation procedures. Mathematical theorems and lemmas are developed to find out the necessary conditions for optimality. The optimal inventory replenishment policies and the optimised retailer's total cost are found out and illustrative numerical examples are presented. Managerial implications are obtained from the sensitivity analysis for various inventory key parameters. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Retailer's optimal replenishment policy in a supply chain under partial trade credits and probabilistic supply disruptions

Authors: A. Thangam

Addresses: Department of Mathematics, Pondicherry University – Community College, Lawspet, Pondicherry – 605 008, India

Abstract: Most of the traders' planning and their inventory control efforts are directed towards running efficient logistic operations under normal conditions. At the same time, global traders are facing random supply disruptions due to some unusual circumstances like earthquake, mishandling in transport, shipping damage, misplacing products etc. that may result a risk in delivery of items. Unlike the existing researches, this paper tries to investigate retailer's inventory system in a supply chain by considering: a) the probabilistic supply disruptions in transport from the supplier to a retailer; b) two-level partial trade credit financing. The supplier offers full trade credit to the retailer and the retailer offers partial trade credit to his customers. The mathematical model for the present scenario is constructed and total cost incurred at the retailer is minimised using one-dimensional optimisation procedures. Mathematical theorems and lemmas are developed to find out the necessary conditions for optimality. The optimal inventory replenishment policies and the optimised retailer's total cost are found out and illustrative numerical examples are presented. Managerial implications are obtained from the sensitivity analysis for various inventory key parameters.

Keywords: partial trade credit; supply chain management; SCM; inventory control; supply disruptions; retailers; optimal replenishment policy; retail industry; optimisation; logistics; mathematical modelling; inventory replenishment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSCOR.2015.075099

International Journal of Supply Chain and Operations Resilience, 2015 Vol.1 No.4, pp.388 - 415

Received: 22 Nov 2014
Accepted: 12 Apr 2015
Published online: 03 Mar 2016 *

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Title: Retailer's optimal replenishment policy in a supply chain under partial trade credits and probabilistic supply disruptions

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