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2019 | Book

Introduction Read chapter Read first chapter

Inventory Management in Multi-Echelon Networks

On the Optimization of Reorder Points

Author: Christopher Grob

Publisher: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden

Book Series : AutoUni – Schriftenreihe

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

Inventory Management in Multi-Echelon Networks presents methods to plan inventory in distribution networks. By holistically looking at the supply chain, it shows how safety stocks across all echelons can be optimized if inventory of all levels is taken into consideration. The gap between the existence of advanced inventory planning methods and their low penetration in the industry was the motivation for this book. Christopher Grob develops essential algorithms that companies can use for network inventory planning and highlights achievable implementation benefits. The work of the author was inspired by the needs of an after sales supply chain of a large automotive company. This company supplies customers all over the world with spare parts and operates a distribution network with more than 100 warehouses. This supply chain faces two particular challenges: demand is highly uncertain and customers expect a high service level.

About the Author

Christopher Grob works in after sales supply chain management at a major German automotive company. He is responsible for the functional development of inventory planning systems for the spare parts business. He is an expert in the field of inventory management.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Introduction
Abstract
Inventory is one of the most important levers in supply chain management and is often used to balance competing goals. Developments in the last decades with rapid advancements in information technology have in theory enabled companies to plan inventory along their entire supply chain and enter the field of multi-echelon inventory management. By holistically looking at the supply chain, it takes inventory at every echelon into consideration.
Christopher Grob
Chapter 2. Inventory management
Abstract
In this chapter we introduce the basic definitions and concepts of inventory management in a multi-echelon setting. We hereby focus on the content needed for our thesis, but also highlight other essentials of inventory management. Then, we give a comprehensive overview of the assumptions made in this thesis.
Christopher Grob
Chapter 3. Multi-echelon distribution networks
Abstract
In this chapter we are going to extend the results of single-echelon systems in Section 2.2 to divergent distribution network (cp. Definition 2). We hereby describe how demand and fill rate can be modeled on the different echelons and how stock on the echelons is connected via the wait time. Figure 3.1 shows an exemplary 3-echelon distribution network.
Christopher Grob
Chapter 4. Multi-echelon optimization
Abstract
In this chapter we are concerned with finding optimal reorder points in multi-echelon distribution systems.
Christopher Grob
Chapter 5. Experimental results
Abstract
In this chapter, we compare the quality of the different wait time approximations presented in Section 3.2. We focus especially on the conditions in which each approximation performs best in approximating the mean and variance of the wait time.
Christopher Grob
Chapter 6. Real-world application
Abstract
In this section, we present an approach how the optimization algorithms of Chapter 4 and the analysis of the numerical experiments in Chapter 5 can be used to implement a multiechelon optimization in a real world application. Much literature has already been written on the implementation of inventory planning methods in general, for example the books of Silver et al. [SPT16] and Axs¨ater [Axs15]. Here, we focus solely on the optimization in multi-echelon networks with many warehouses and where an optimization has to be done for many instances.
Christopher Grob
Chapter 7. Conclusion
Abstract
In this work, we undertook a comprehensive look at the modeling and planning of inventory in multi-echelon distribution networks where all warehouses use (R,Q)-order policies. Our contributions can be divided in three main areas: the approximation of wait time, the optimization of reorder points in 2-echelon networks and the generalization to n-level networks.
Christopher Grob
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Inventory Management in Multi-Echelon Networks
Author
Christopher Grob
Copyright Year
2019
Electronic ISBN
978-3-658-23375-4
Print ISBN
978-3-658-23374-7
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-23375-4