Inventory Management of Perishable Products in a Supply Chain

易腐产品的有效库存管理具有重要的经济和社会意义。超市通常有超过30000种商品，其中15%是易腐品。最近的一项研究表明，每年有11.4%的新鲜水果、9.7%的新鲜蔬菜和4.5%的鲜肉被浪费在超市里。2010年，加拿大29.4%的食品供应被浪费，其中9.1%被浪费在零售环节。这些例子突出了有效管理易腐产品的重要性，以减少浪费成本和对环境的影响。

Efficient inventory management of perishable products is of great economic and social importance. Supermarkets often carry more than 30000 items of which 15% are perishable. A recent study shows that, annually, 11.4% of the fresh fruit, 9.7% of fresh vegetables and 4.5% of fresh meat is wasted in supermarkets. In 2010, 29.4% of the food supply in Canada was wasted, with 9.1% of that in retail. These examples highlight the importance of effective management of perishable products, to reduce both wastage cost and environmental impact. To date, the vast body of research in this area model the problem as a queueing or inventory system. To make the model tractable, most papers simplify many fundamental elements of the perishable product inventory management system, such as uncertainty in the initial age of the units received by retailers and transshipment of units between locations. Moreover, some basic aspects of the perishable product supply chain are completely ignored, including inventory routing when demand is uncertain and non-routine (emergency) orders placed by retailers. To close these gaps, the proposed research program will study the inventory management of perishable products in a supply chain facing uncertain demand. The proposed program will empirically validate the developed models using real world data to provide insights into the inventory management of perishable products. Specifically, considering that the retailers usually do not receive fresh products, as has been observed in a recent empirical study by the applicant, the first goal of the proposed research is to model and analyze the effects of the initial age of units received by a retailer on different performance measures, including the rate of outdated units and the chance of shortage. The second goal of this research is to study the impact of transshipment of perishable products between locations on the performance of a supply chain. Transshipment has been considered as a tool to manage mismatch between the supply and demand. While transshipment of non--perishable products has been long studied in the literature, to the best knowledge of the applicant, there is no paper in the literature that provides a guideline for inventory management of perishable products when retailers transship units among each other, considering the initial age of units. Motivated by a recent collaboration that the applicant had with South Western Ontario Regional Blood Coordinating Network, the third goal of the proposed research is to model and analyze the inventory routing of perishable products where retailers may place emergency orders to satisfy shortages they face. This program will benefit retailers and users of perishable products, logistics companies, the waste management industry, and ultimately the Canadian consumer, by reducing waste and providing increased capacity of experts in the management of perishable products, through the trainees in the program.