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。迄今为止，这一领域的大量研究都将问题建模为排队或库存系统。为了使模型易于处理，大多数论文简化了易腐产品库存管理系统的许多基本要素，例如零售商收到的单位初始年龄的不确定性以及单位在不同地点之间的转运。此外，易腐产品供应链的一些基本方面完全被忽视，包括需求不确定时的库存路径和零售商下的非常规（紧急）订单。为了缩小这些差距，提出的研究计划将研究面对不确定需求的供应链中易腐产品的库存管理。该计划将利用现实世界的数据对开发的模型进行实证验证，以提供对易腐产品库存管理的见解。具体来说，考虑到零售商通常不会收到新鲜的产品，正如申请人最近的一项实证研究所观察到的那样，本研究的第一个目标是建模和分析零售商收到的单位的初始年龄对不同绩效指标的影响，包括过时单位的比率和短缺的机会。本研究的第二个目标是研究易腐产品在不同地点之间转运对供应链绩效的影响。转运被认为是一种管理供需不匹配的工具。虽然非易腐产品的转运在文献中已经研究了很长时间，但据申请人所知，文献中没有一篇论文提供了考虑到单位初始年龄的零售商相互转运单位时易腐产品库存管理的指导方针。受申请人最近与西南安大略区域血液协调网络的合作的激励，拟议研究的第三个目标是建模和分析易腐烂产品的库存路线，零售商可能会下紧急订单以满足他们面临的短缺。该计划将使易腐产品的零售商和用户、物流公司、废物管理行业以及最终的加拿大消费者受益，通过该计划的学员减少浪费并提高易腐产品管理专家的能力。

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.