Study On Inventory Control In Enviroment Of Supply Chain

The competition in 21st century is the competition among supply chains that is on the base of time and consumer requirement, it is more challenging for supply chain management. The inventory management is the important part of supply chain management. This paper conducts some study and discussion in the aspect of demand and inventory cycle time.First, we study a great deal of literatures on single-echelon and multi-echelon inventory control. Secondly, this paper formulate a three-stage supply chain model where a firm can supply many customers. We deal with three inventory coordination mechanisms based on inventory cycle time and solve a cost minimization for each. Then we provide some insights into when each coordination mechanisms lead to cost optimization. At last, we get a conclusion.In many industries demand is becoming more and more uncertain. The most critical effect of demand uncertainty is the increase of inventories and decrease of customer service. This work describes a multi-echelon supply chain ,in which customers of different size lay at the same level of the supply chain. The difference in size generate variable and lumpy demand pattern. We analyze the demand and separate it into two different parts. Then, the paper provide two different methods to forecast each one which can decrease the uncertainty of demand. It shows that inventory management which is consistent with supply chain structure enable to enhance operative performances. Eventually, we highlights that the exploitation of a larger and reliable set of information dramatically improves performance.