供应商管理库存系统外文文献翻译最新译文

文献出处：Kannan G, Grigore M C, Devika K, et al. An analysis of the general benefits of a centralised VMI system based on the EOQ model [J]. International Journal of Production Research, 2013, 51(1): 172-188.

An analysis of the general benefits of a centralised VMI system

based on the EOQ model

G. Kannan, M. C. Grigore, K. Devika & A. Senthilkumar

1.Introduction

Due to the global expansion of large companies, competition all over the world is becoming stronger and therefore an increasing need to obtain competitive prices is pushing industries to take on new challenging, strategic methods. One of the recently recognised methods is the replacement of the traditional supply chain with the vendor-managed inventory (VMI) supply chain. It has been proven in many different papers that the VMI supply chain is superior to the traditional supply chain and can bring significant cost savings to the participants.

A traditional supply chain refers to the system within which each of the members at the different stages make decisions regarding replenishment quantities and timing so as to minimise cost at their end of the supply chain. The supply chain usually consists of all stages, starting at the raw material supplier and continuing on until the finished product reaches the end customer. All the different stages are linked by their common aim of providing the right product to the right customer in the promised time.

VMI is a replenishment supply chain technique that has been implemented since the beginning of the 1980s by Wall-Mart and Procter & Gamble (Waller et al. 1999), and has its roots back in 1958 when Magee (1958) first introduced the concept.

Within a VMI agreement, the upstream supply chain member (the vendor) takes responsibility for managing the inventory of the downstream member (the buyer) within specific levels previously agreed upon without the need for orders from the customer side to be placed. Therefore, the vendor can focus on optimising production efficiency and capacity planning, while the customer has to improve forecast

accuracy.

The success of VMI is dependent on communication between the partners, their willingness to share data, collaboration and coordination, and an information technology system which enables fast access to critical information (Duchessi and Chengalur-Smith 2008).

The general characteristics of a traditional supply chain and of a VMI supply chain, formed by three stage.

The research here is meant to offer a simple overview of the possible outcomes after VMI implementation in a two-stage supply chain, between the vendor and its multiple buyers. The analysis focuses on the overall supply chain cost impact, which VMI can show under specific conditions, based on the practical experience learned in the pharmaceutical industry.

Using VMI in a supply chain brings transparency regarding essential information among the partners, thus giving the opportunity at each stage to adjust the decisions in a timely manner and avoid emergency situations.

The VMI supply chain implies coordination between the partnering stages, continuous information sharing, and regular meetings where critical issues are discussed and follow-up actions are noted.

The general benefits model analysed in this paper is based on the economic ordering quantity (EOQ) model and is an extension of Bookbinder et al.'s (2010) paper. As an extension of the aforementioned work, the model has been adjusted to integrate different requirements and constraints from within the pharmaceutical industry. It has been further extended from analysing a one-vendor, one-buyer deterministic demand case to analysing a one-vendor, multiple-buyer stochastic demand case.

The mathematical model applies to two echelons, the vendor and its multiple buyers. An observation is made here to distinguish that the buyers are not the end-consumers but represent sales organisations from each country. At the same time both the vendor and buyers belong to the same organisation.

In the literature, one of the main challenges when implementing VMI has been