An integrated approach for logistic and vendor managed inventory in supply chain

In this paper, a quaternary policy system towards integrated logistics and inventory aspect of the supply chain has been proposed. A system of multi retailers and distributors, with each distributor following a unique policy, will be analysed. The first policy is continuous time replenishment policy where the retailers' inventory is replenished in every time interval. In the next three policies, inventory of the retailers will be replenished by some definite policy factors. The vendor managed inventory (VMI) system is used for updating the inventory of the retailers. An order-up-to policy (q, Q) is used for updating the inventory of distributors. Total erstwhile demands to the retailer will be used to determine the amount of inventory acclivity. Furthermore, the distributors will be sending the delivery vehicles to few fellow retailers who are shortlisted according to the policy, followed by the retailers and associated distributors. On the basis of random demand that the retailers are facing from end customers and the total demand that has incurred in the supply chain, products are unloaded to the selected retailers from the delivery vehicle. The path of the delivery vehicle is retrieved by dynamic ant colony optimization. In addition. a framework has been developed to measure the end-customer satisfaction level and total supply chain cost incorporating the inventory holding cost, ordering cost and the transportation cost. The framework has been numerically moulded with different settings to compare the performance of the quadruplet policies. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.