A Class Of Inventory Model With Product Life Cycle

As we know, inventory management plays an important role in the supply chain management. So to optimize the inventory management by use of operation research has a profound significance not only in theory but also in practice. In this dissertation, we mainly consider a class of inventory models in which products have their life cycles. Three chapters are included in the dissertation.In Chapter 1. we briefly introduce the effects of inventory management on supply chain management and some basic definations and models about inventory.In Chapter 2, we consider an inventory model for multi-product with the same life cycle. First, a dynamic programming algorithm is presented for the model. Then a more general cubic funtion is given to approximate a kind of demand rate during the life cycle. Finally, an instance is solved by using the algorithm and MATLAB.In Chapter 3, we study a kind of inventory model in which price discount is considered for the perishable products. First of all, we develope an binary function for the approximation for demand rate during the life cycle. Then three inventory strategies are proposed for the model. By analysing and comparing, optimal replenishment cycle and discount time are decided to maximize average profits per time.