A constrained multi-product pricing and inventory control problem

The aim of this article is presenting a new constrained multi-product pricing and inventory model in which perishable products are put into three categories: substitute, complementary and independent. The general demand is found by considering the relations of different products and the impact of their prices. The goal of the model is deciding on the prices as well as the inventory and production decisions in order to maximize the total profit. The derived model is a non-linear programming model and a genetic algorithm is developed for its solution. To enhance the performance of our genetic algorithm, we apply the Taguchi experimental design method to tune the parameters of the algorithm. Finally, the computational results and some recommendations for future extensions are presented. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.