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The objective of this study is to revise and enhance existing inventory control models in a way that allows them to be used more efficiently in environments with short lead times.

A simulation approach has been chosen to assess the efficiency of the developed model. This simulation is based on randomly generated demand data with a compound Poisson type of distribution.

Results from the simulation show that traditionally used inventory control methods fail to ensure that desired service levels are attained in environments with short lead times. The simulation also shows that, by using the developed model, the differences between desired and attained service levels can be reduced to fall within limits acceptable in practice.

The study provides an enhanced inventory control model that can be used in environments with short lead time to increase service level performance.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a simulation model to evaluate inventory and distribution decisions like lateral transshipments in a network with multiple products.

Data are collected from a company, and a discrete-event simulation in Python is developed to support the decision-making process of managers through different algorithms of lateral transshipments.

The numerical results show that the periodic delivery-continuous reorder policy is more robust than the others because the reorder process is not affected by the higher saturation that is achieved by periodic reorder–based policies. The new lateral transshipment algorithm will lead to huge savings in logistics costs for any company and increase truck saturation without causing a decrease in the service level.

This paper provides a novel institutional perspective on a complex logistics issue where COVD-19 is believed to complicate the context.

This solution is devised for any company to achieve even greater benefits in terms of customer service improvement and logistics costs reduction.

The main contribution of this paper is the proposal of a new lateral transshipment algorithm that shows performance improvement by simulating distribution network processes according to different configurations.

The terms “inventory” and “stock” are usually seen as being synonymous and are used to describe materials which can be identified at various stages of the transformation process in organisations. It is customary to divide inventory into three categories:

Most managers are aware that inventory cannot exist without costs being incurred. In the absence of an accurate indication of what these costs are the decision on the level of stocks to be held becomes very subjective. The result is that in some instances stock levels are too low whereas in other instances the reverse is the case. This article seeks to demonstrate that it is possible to achieve significant savings through quantitative analysis which can be comprehended by managers who do not have specific mathematical skills.

The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of supply management coordination among a prominent contact lens company (customer), its carton supplier (first tier), and paperboard supplier (second tier). Adopting concepts within the theory of swift and even flow, the authors integrate the physical (material) and information flow among these supply partners to ensure higher productivity through timely production and distribution of the cartons, which reduced the lead-times and inventory levels at the three companies in this supply chain.

This study uses a longitudinal case study (action research (AR)), which combines qualitative and quantitative analyses. Observations over time, documents such as contracts, joint agreements, meeting agendas and minutes, personal conversations, and in-depth interviews were mainly used, with quantitative measurement of operational performance.

The complete solution to eliminate waste and improve the existing system is provided, as well as the ordering process solution in the form of service level models. The results of the study proved supply management coordination to be a pioneering approach in reducing inventory, reducing the safety stock at the buyer’s facility, improving the forecasts, lowering the product delivery lead-times, and establishing an information system throughout the three tiers of the supply chain.

The paper draws upon real-life data from a three echelon supply chain in the manufacturing industry. Combining this triadic focus with action-based research makes it a unique opportunity to reveal insights into the issue of coordination among supply chain members and consequent performance outcomes.

A simulation model conceived from the causal and interactive behaviour of various inter‐related activities is described, its aim being to aid study of the problems of the procurement‐production‐distribution system of a manufacturing company engaged in the multi‐stage production of many products.

ORGANIZATIONS operating in a city which earned the phrase ‘Shipshape and Bristol fashion’ have a formidable reputation to maintain. So much is expected of them. One at least need have no fears on those grounds if a first visit to its Annual Conference is typical of previous ones. It is the Department of Work Study and Staff Training of the Engineering Employers' West of England Association.

In a Just‐in‐Time (JIT) environment, ideally there would be no need for safety stocks. However, in practice, supply‐side and demandside uncertainties cannot be completely eliminated. Safety stocks would still be needed – particularly during the transition to JIT. Reviews the various methods for computing safety stocks. For each method, examines the relationship between safety stocks and lot sizes. The analysis indicates that the commonly used methods do not take into account the reduction in lot sizes that is characteristic of JIT. Such methods, therefore, are inappropriate for use in the JIT context.

The just‐in‐time (JIT) purchasing system has been demonstrated as a mechanism to reduce inventory carrying cost and improve the quality of incoming materials. One major limitation of the JIT purchasing system is that it demands a major change in people′s attitudes and work habits. While leading an organisation towards the complete implementation of a JIT system, management must have creative and innovative ideas to ensure co‐operation of all concerned. A feasibility study of implementing a JIT purchasing system conducted in a large manufacturing plant is reported.

The purpose of this paper is to present a new hybrid approach based on criticality analysis and optimisation to deal with spare parts inventory management in the initial provisioning phase in the mining industry. Spare parts represent a significant part of mining companies' expenditures, so it is important to develop new approaches to reduce the total inventory value of these items.

This hybrid approach combines qualitative and quantitative methods based on VED (vital, essential and desirable) analysis, analytical hierarchical process (AHP), and e-constraint optimisation method to obtain the spare parts to be stocked. The study was applied to a large mining company. The mineral sector was chosen due to the great importance to the emerging Brazilian economy and the lack of researches in this sector. In addition, the spare parts have a relevant weight on the total inventory cost.

Present a novel approach combining multi-objective optimisation and multi-criteria evaluation approaches to tackle the inventory decision in spare parts management. This work also defines and classifies relevant criteria for spare parts management in the mineral sector validated by specialists. The proposed approach achieves an average increase of 20.2% in the criticality and 16.6% in the number of items to be stocked compared to the historical data of the surveyed company.

This paper applies the proposed approach to a mining company in Brazil. Future research in other companies or regions should analyse the adequacy of the criticality criteria, hierarchy and weights adopted in this paper.

The proposed approach is useful for mining industries that deal with a large variety of resource constraints as it helps in formulating appropriate spare part strategies to rationalise financial resources at both tactical and strategic levels.

The paper presents a new hybrid method combining the AHP a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach coupled with e-constraint optimisation to deal with spare parts inventory management allowing for a better spare parts inventory analysis in the initial provisioning phase and providing managers with a systematic tool to analyse the trade-off between spare parts criticality and total inventory value.