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Optimal Purchasing Policy for Fresh Products from Multiple Supply Sources with Considerations of Random Delivery Times, Risk, and Information
Author(s) -
Xu Xiaolin,
Cai Xiaoqiang,
Zhang Lianmin
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
decision sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.238
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1540-5915
pISSN - 0011-7315
DOI - 10.1111/deci.12432
Subject(s) - purchasing , product (mathematics) , computer science , production (economics) , operations research , lead time , order (exchange) , economics , mathematical optimization , microeconomics , operations management , mathematics , geometry , finance
ABSTRACT We consider a problem in which a distributor purchases fresh products from multiple supply sources for subsequent sale at a wholesale market. Due to uncontrollable factors such as traffic congestion or bad weather conditions, the time taken for the product to be delivered from each production origin is uncertain. As the wholesale market is open for trading only in a fixed‐time window, any fresh products arriving earlier face the risk of decay, and any arriving later cannot be sold. The market demand for the product is random and follows a general distribution. We formulate the basic problem as a multi‐source selection model with random yield, taking into account the trade‐off between purchasing cost and other costs such as deterioration loss arising from delivery uncertainty. We derive the optimal order quantities from different origins and propose algorithms to search for them. We also investigate the effects of delivery uncertainty on service level and transport mode selection. Finally, we examine two extensions. One considers a capacity limit in each production origin, and the other incorporates information updating. For the first extension, we propose algorithms to compute the optimal solution based on its structural properties. For the second problem, we derive the optimal purchasing policy according to updated information such as details of the arrivals of previous orders.