Description
Springer Inventory Management with Alternative Delivery Times by Xiaoying Liang, Lijun Ma, Haifeng Wang, Houmin Yan
This book develops a modeling framework to analyze the problem of inventory management with alternative delivery times. The general context considered here is that a seller replenishes its inventory in fixed intervals and, between replenishments, allocates the limited inventory to satisfy customers who are both price and delivery-time sensitive. On the demand side, customers have heterogeneous delivery-time requirements and choose either spot or late delivery. This theoretical modeling captures the essence of real-world business practices such as the delivery time market segmentation strategy adopted by automobile dealerships in China and many other similar examples. The book focuses on the seller's optimal inventory replenishment and demand fulfillment policies, and our results provide managerial insights into the merits of flexible delivery-time options. Similar applications such as the group-buying mechanism are also examined. The main mathematical tool used in theoretical analysis is dynamic programming. This book is written for students, researchers, and practitioners in the areas of operations management and industrial engineering who are interested in understanding the rationale of flexible delivery times and designing successful applications._x000D_ Table of contents :- _x000D_
Chapter 1. Overview.- Chapter 2. Examples From Industry.- Chapter 3. Inventory Models with Two Delivery-time Options.- Chapter 4. Inventory Models with Delivery-time Upgrade.- Chapter 5. Inventory Control and Pricing with Alternative Delivery Times.- Chapter 6. Inventory Commitment and Prioritized Backlogging Clearance with Alternative Delivery Times.- Chapter 7. Inventory Management with Alternative Delivery Times: The Case of Group Buying._x000D_