JOINT REPLENISHMENT AND JOINT DELIVERY OF MULTIPLE ITEMS

This paper discussed integers multiple joint replenishment and joint delivery of multiple items in a supply chain comprising multiple suppliers, multiple warehouses, and multiple retailers. In contrast to the existing integers multiple coordination mechanisms, the proposed coordination mechanism allows different replenishment and delivery cycle times for the firms located at the same level of the supply chain. To do this, the basic replenishment cycle time of each warehouse is set to be an integer multiple of the basic delivery cycle time of the warehouse. This synchronization between the basic replenishment cycle time and basic delivery cycle time of the warehouse helps in coordinating replenishments and deliveries. The inclusion of joint replenishment along with joint delivery from the warehouse minimizes transportation and inventory holding cost without affecting service level. The numerical experiments have been conducted to show practical implementation and implications of the proposed integers multiple joint replenishment and joint delivery coordination mechanisms. Furthermore, the proposed integers multiple joint replenishment and joint delivery coordination mechanisms are compared with (1) integers multiple with joint replenishment but without joint delivery, (2) integers multiple without joint replenishment and joint delivery, and (3) integer powers-of-two multiple joint coordination mechanisms at various levels of input parameters. From the numerical analysis, it is evident that the proposed integers multiple joint replenishment and joint delivery coordination mechanism outperformed the existing integers multiple and integer powers-of-two multiple coordination mechanisms.