Order Expediting in Supply Chains: Models, Solution Approaches, and Applications

In the world of business management, most inventory models assume that open orders arrive after a lead time that cannot be controlled by the inventory manager. However, in many real world situations, inventory managers have the option to expedite open orders. Due to the lack of appropriate models, they often have to rely on sub-optimal heuristics to make expediting decisions. This book incorporates an expediting level policy in a periodic-review base-stock inventory model and shows how the optimal solution can be computed. The approaches can be implemented easily and are capable of solving large problems efficiently. While the book is mathematically rigorous, it presents important managerial insights gained from scenario analyses, using data from the service division of a global equipment manufacturer. (Series: Writings on Business Management Practice / Schriften zur betriebswirtschaftlichen Praxis - Vol. 7) [Subject: Business Management, Economics]