A single-retailer multi-supplier multi-product inventory model with destructive testing acceptance sampling and inflation

ABSTRACT

In this paper, a multi-product inventory problem is investigated in which a retailer buys items from different suppliers based on their purchasing costs and defective rates. Due to the warehouse and staff constraints involved, the inventory cycle consists of two parts. The first part corresponds to a screening period in which a destructive testing acceptance-sampling plan is used to accept or reject a lot. The other part is for selling the items. In the screening period, a lot that is rejected is returned to the suppliers where another lot is claimed for substitution at no cost. Shortage occurs during the screening period and the defective items are sold at a lower price at the end of the second part of the cycle. As we show that the problem belongs to the class of NP-hard problems, a particle swarm optimization (PSO) and a genetic algorithm (GA) is used to solve it.

KEYWORDS:

• Supply chain management
• economic order quantity
• destructive testing
• warehouse limitation
• lot size

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Behzad Maleki Vishkaei

Behzad Maleki Vishkaei received his BS and MS degrees in Industrial Engineering from Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran. He is currently a PhD candidate of industrial Engineering at Mazandaran University of Science & Technology. His research interests include areas of Supply Chain Management, Reliability and operations research.

Seyed Taghi Akhavan Niaki

Seyed Taghi Akhavan Niaki is a Distinguished Professor of Industrial Engineering at Sharif University of Technology. His research interests are in the areas of simulation modeling and analysis, applied statistics, multivariate quality control, and operations research. Before joining Sharif University of Technology, he worked as a systems engineer and quality control manager for Iranian Electric Meters Company. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees both in Industrial Engineering from West Virginia University. He is the Editor-In-Chief of Scientia Iranica, the Editor of Scientia Iranica – Transactions E, the Executive Editor of Scientific-Research Journal of Sharif, the Editor of Sharif Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, and a member of the board of editors in several international journals. He is also a member of alpha-pi-mu.

Milad Farhangi

Milad Farhangi is a PhD candidate of Industrial Engineering at Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran. He received his BS and MS degrees in industrial Engineering from the same university. He is a member of Young Researchers and Elite Club, Qazvin Branch. His research interests include areas of Inventory Control, Supply Chain Management and operations research.

Iraj Mahdavi

Iraj Mahdavi is the Professor of Industrial Engineering and university president at Mazandaran University of Science and Technology. He received his Ph.D. from India in Production Engineering and Post-Doctorate professor from Hanyang University, Korea. He is also in the editorial board of five journals. He has published over 200 research papers. His research interests include Cellular Manufacturing, Digital Management of Industrial Enterprises, Intelligent Operation Management and Industrial Strategy Setting.