Performance Evaluation of Stochastic Multi-Echelon Inventory Systems: A Survey

Globalization, product proliferation, and fast product innovation have significantly increasedthe complexities of supply chains in many industries. One of the most important advancementsof supply chain management in recent years is the development of models and methodologiesfor controlling inventory in general supply networks under uncertainty and their widefspreadapplications to industry. These developments are based on three generic methods: the queueing-inventory method, the lead-time demand method and the flow-unit method. In this paper,we compare and contrast these methods by discussing their strengths and weaknesses, theirdifferences and connections, and showing how to apply them systematically to characterizeand evaluate various supply networks with different supply processes, inventory policies, anddemand processes. Our objective is to forge links among research strands on different methodsand various network topologies so as to develop unified methodologies.Masdar Institute of Science and TechnologyNational Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF Contract CMMI-0758069)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Career Award CMMI-0747779)Bayer Business ServicesSAP A