Managing Supply Chain Demand Variability with Scheduled Ordering Policies
研究一个供应商和多个零售商组成的供应链中，零售商采用定期订购策略（固定间隔、固定批量）对供应商需求波动和总成本的影响，发现延长订购间隔或增大批量可降低供应商需求波动和总成本。
This paper studies supply chain demand variability in a model with one supplier and Nretailers that face stochastic demand. Retailers implement scheduled ordering policies: Orders occur at fixed intervals and are equal to some multiple of a fixed batch size. A method is presented that exactly evaluates costs. Previous research demonstrates that the supplier's demand variance declines as the retailers' order intervals are balanced, i.e., the same number of retailers order each period. This research shows that the supplier's demand variance will (generally) decline as the retailers' order interval is lengthened or as their batch size is increased. Lower supplier demand variance can certainly lead to lower inventory at the supplier. This paper finds that reducing supplier demand variance with scheduled ordering policies can also lower total supply chain costs.