| We investigate the inventory decisions for a perishable product with lost sales under the first-in-first-out inventory issuing rule,where th e shelf life of perishable product is two sale periods and the demand of each period is random.Besides the order decision made at the beginning of first Period,the decision-maker can update the inventory at the end of first Period.Thus,two inventory-adjustment policies,i.e.,expedited-order policy and returns policy,are first investigated.Both policies are ch aracterized respectively by two thresholds.A conventional thought is that the returns of some aged units should be more effective in reducing the wastage and increase the utilization rate and th e mid reorder should be better for improving customer service level.However,we show that expedited-order policy will have more advantages over returns policy in controlling outdate rate,while it will be worse for the manager in reducing the shortage rate.From the perspective of performance,each policy has its pros and cons.To integrate the merits of each polic y,we not only study the inventory strategy with both expedited order and ret urns policy,but also incl ude inventory strategy with neither ex pedited order nor returns policy.The very short shelf life of platelets compared to other perishable products makes their inventory management a challenging task.Such critical platelets shortage or excessed inventory often occurs in small and mediu m-sized hospitals(SMH)due to the uncertaint y of demand.When demand is high,shortages result in terrible services and high medical costs for patients,and when demand is low,overstocking can result in higher outdate costs.Our paper indicates that if managed and shared effectively,hospitals and blood banks can coordinate efficiently,returning blood platelets before they obsolete allows them to be used for other treatments and hence reduces outdate rate,hence the bloo d outdate rates c an be reduced.Meanwhile,some stategies can be able to satiefy the needs of patients. |
