A small business logistics DSS: an inventory and a field service support system

Abstract

Two decision support systems were developed in order to help managers of small firms. The first is an inventory decision support system that utilizes both the fixed quantity model, the fixed period model, as well as forecasting techniques both for new and old products. The second is a support system for field (customer) service which utilizes a queueing network model and a simulation model. Both models are useful tools for strategic allocation of resources by a field (customer) service manager in order to improve customer service.

The contribution of the paper is (i) the integration of the two support systems into a single unified DSS that will help the Logistics and Field (Customer) Service managers in their decision making; (ii) the use of the simulation field service model which is more powerful than the Markovian queueing model as it allows more realistic distributions to be used for the operation and repair times than the exponential distribution, (iii) the novel provision of powerful facilities such as the product forecasting techniques that were utilized by our support system.

The proposed logistics DSS has been successfully tested with an authorized service provider of a local subsidiary of a multinational computer company which sells computer systems and integrated solution services, including after sale services (maintenance, etc).

Keywords:

• Logistics
• field (customer) service
• small business decision support systems
• strategic planning
• performance evaluation