Approximation Algorithms for the Supplier's Supply Chain Scheduling Problem to Minimize Delivery and Inventory Holding Costs
成果类型：
Article
署名作者：
Selvarajah, Esaignani; Steiner, George
署名单位：
University of Windsor; McMaster University
刊物名称：
OPERATIONS RESEARCH
ISSN/ISSBN：
0030-364X
DOI：
10.1287/opre.1080.0622
发表日期：
2009
页码：
426-438
关键词：
摘要：
We study the upstream supplier's batch scheduling problem in a supply chain, which was defined by Hall and Potts [Hall, N. G., C. N. Potts. 2003. Supply chain scheduling: Batching and delivery. Oper. Res. 51(4) 566-584]. The supplier has to manufacture multiple products and deliver them to customers in batches. There is an associated delivery cost with each batch. The objective of the supplier is to minimize the total inventory holding and delivery costs. We present simple approximation algorithms for this strongly NP-hard problem, which find a solution that is guaranteed to have a cost at most 3/2 times the minimum. We also prove that the approximation algorithms have worst-case bounds that vary parametrically with the data and that for realistic parameter values are much better than 3/2. The theoretical results are also supported by the findings of a computational study.