Note. An Acquisition Policy for a Single Item Multi-Supplier System
研究企业如何从多个合格供应商中确定采购对象、数量和频率，给出最优解的性质及其与JIT单源采购的关系，并提供一个可控制误差的求解方法。
In this paper we consider the problem of developing an acquisition policy. Specifically, given a set of potential (qualified) suppliers, from whom should the firm buy the product, in what quantities, and how often? We provide properties of the optimal solution and relate them to the approach of using a single source as advocated by JIT. The solution procedure provides the periodic order quantity from each supplier; the order size; and the firm cycle time as well as how many times per cycle we should order from each supplier. We show that the maximum error of our solution can be made as small as desired.