Optimal Vendor-Managed Inventory policies in distribution systems with discrete-event processes

The present work deals with distribution systems characterized by discrete-event processes and in which a Vendor-Managed Inventory (VMI) policy is applied. VMI is a supply chain strategy in which the vendor or supplier has the responsibility of managing the customers’ inventory and, therefore, the supplier has to plan the replenishment policy taking into account his transportation costs and the customers’ inventory costs. In this context, the present work refers to a distribution chain in which the system dynamics is event-driven since the demand and the deliveries are modelled as discrete-event processes. In particular, the focus of this work is on a simple network composed of one supplier and one customer. The main objective is to state an optimization problem in which, once the asynchronous requests of the customer are known, the optimal deliveries are determined. Then, an optimal solution procedure is defined and explained by a numerical example.