Updating Inventories of Substitutable Resources in Response to Forecast Updates

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bansal, Saurabh; Dyer, James S.
• 署名单位: Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); Pennsylvania State University; Pennsylvania State University - University Park; University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin
• 刊物名称: PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1059-1478
• DOI: 10.1111/poms.12054
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 477-488
• 关键词: substitutable resources; forecast updates; inventory updates; structural properties of multi-product newsvendor problems

摘要

We show simple yet optimal results to update the inventory/capacity levels, expected profit, fill rates, and service levels of substitutable resources in response to an updating of the mean demand forecasts for the resources. We find that a change in the mean demand of one resource does not affect the optimal inventory level of any other resource. The results are obtained for demands with location-scale distribution, and for a revenue structure satisfying a triangle property such that the manager will always use the inventory of a resource to meet her own demand first before using it for substitution. The results for updating the performance measures also extend to managers who maintain non-optimal inventory/capacity levels. Implications for procurement, sales and operational planning, and multi-store operations are discussed.