Innovative vendor-managed inventory strategy exploiting interconnected logistics services in the Physical Internet
提出一种基于物理互联网的供应商管理库存策略，通过共享设施和运输资源动态决策库存，降低总物流成本并维持服务水平。
Traditional supply chain networks are often designed in the interests of a company. Once the network has been defined, the storage and distribution of goods are usually fixed and restricted within the network. This is assumed to be an inherent limit of current inventory control research. Instead of specialised hierarchical storage networks, this paper proposes an innovative vendor-managed inventory strategy exploiting the Physical Internet (PI), which is an open, universal, interconnected logistics system. In such a system, facilities and means of transport are shared and can be allocated according to demands of users. As a result, the PI allows users to stock anywhere in the network and also provides open multisourcing options for orders with on-demand warehousing services within the PI. Inventory decisions can be made dynamically by each player to minimise networkwide inventory levels. A non-linear, simulation-based optimisation model was developed for the vendors’ inventory decision-making when confronted with stochastic demands. A metaheuristic using simulated annealing was applied to solve the problem, and then, the optimised inventory decisions were validated using simulation. The results suggest that the proposed PI inventory model can reduce the total logistics cost while maintaining a comparable or better level of end customers’ services.