Article: An innovative model to optimise inventory management: a case study in healthcare sector Journal: International Journal of Services and Operations Management (IJSOM) 2017 Vol.27 No.4 pp.549 - 568 Abstract: In the age of competition, no industry can survive without pondering much about reducing expenditures wherever possible. Management of inventories represents one of the most important areas in business, trade and industry. The scheduling of production lots, as well as their sizing, is an area of increasing research attention within the wider field of production planning and scheduling. In the present paper a new mathematical model to find the target stocking level which minimises the total cost of the system while satisfying the service level constraint is presented. Starting from the analysis of inventory management models in literature, a completely original model has been developed and applied to a real case in healthcare sector. The analysis of the results, arising from the case study, allowed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed models and to highlight the differences. Nevertheless the proposed model has characteristics of generality that allow the application in other areas. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: An innovative model to optimise inventory management: a case study in healthcare sector

Authors: Antonio Forcina; Antonella Petrillo; Gianpaolo Di Bona; Fabio De Felice; Alessandro Silvestri

Addresses: University of Naples 'Parthenope', Centro Direzionale, Isola C4 – 80143 Napoli (NA), Italy ' University of Naples 'Parthenope', Centro Direzionale, Isola C4 – 80143 Napoli (NA), Italy ' University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Via G. Di Biasio, 43-03043 Cassino (FR), Italy ' University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Via G. Di Biasio, 43-03043 Cassino (FR), Italy ' University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Via G. Di Biasio, 43-03043 Cassino (FR), Italy

Abstract: In the age of competition, no industry can survive without pondering much about reducing expenditures wherever possible. Management of inventories represents one of the most important areas in business, trade and industry. The scheduling of production lots, as well as their sizing, is an area of increasing research attention within the wider field of production planning and scheduling. In the present paper a new mathematical model to find the target stocking level which minimises the total cost of the system while satisfying the service level constraint is presented. Starting from the analysis of inventory management models in literature, a completely original model has been developed and applied to a real case in healthcare sector. The analysis of the results, arising from the case study, allowed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed models and to highlight the differences. Nevertheless the proposed model has characteristics of generality that allow the application in other areas.

Keywords: inventory management; lot sizing; healthcare sector; supply chain; dynamic models.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2017.085215

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2017 Vol.27 No.4, pp.549 - 568

Received: 14 Nov 2015
Accepted: 19 Jan 2016
Published online: 17 Jul 2017 *

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Title: An innovative model to optimise inventory management: a case study in healthcare sector

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