Inventory routing problems: a logistical overview

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of Supply Chain Management while focussing on the area of Inventory Routing. We aim to provide the state-of-the-art in this area while highlighting the usefulness of the models in practice as well as their limitations. We have classified the papers based on the planning horizon employed in the models namely single period, multiperiod and infinite horizon models that are then complemented by those with stochastic demand patterns. Future research avenues that we believe to be of interest to the OR/MS community are also presented.

Keywords:

• logistics
• supply chain
• transportation
• inventory

Acknowledgements

NH Moin thank British Council for the grant under the Royal Society Malaysian Fellowship (part of the British Chevening Scholarship programme). We are also grateful to the referees for their constructive comments.