An extension of inventory models incorporating financing agreements with both suppliers and customers

In a recent article, Min et al. [J. Min, Y.W. Zhou, J. Zhao, An inventory model for deteriorating items under stock-dependent demand and two-level trade credit, Appl. Math. Model. 34 (2010) 3273–3285] presented an inventory model for a retailer with inventory-level-dependent demand as well as upstream and downstream financing agreements. The purpose of this note is twofold: (1) to relax the boundary condition imposed in their model that ensures the entire stock is depleted at the end of each order cycle and (2) to resolve the potential unbounded solution resulting from a linear demand function by constraining the maximum inventory level. The effects of these changes on the retailer’s profitability are examined and some practical generalizations of the model are presented.