Optimal inventory policy for the two-level supply chain with defective items

Abstract

This project focuses on two-level closed-loop supply chains with defective items. The objective of this project is to develop and design a model that minimizes the total expected cost per unit time, which includes set-up costs, holding costs, transportation/shipping costs, and screening costs of the integrated two-level close-loop supply chain. The model also finds the optimum order size and optimum number of shipments. The buyer screens the products received from the vendor to find the defective items. The holding costs of the defective items at the buyer's end is paid by the vendor. After the screening process, the defective items are shipped back to the vendor and the vendor has to carry the shipping costs of the defective items. Two scenarios may arise: where both the vendor and buyer are domestic or international, where vendor and buyer are located in two different countries. In the case of an international supply chain, exchange rate between two countries has also been considered. In current world since the business growing fast, the inventory management of any business enterprise improving their performance financially by minimizing the holding cost. The analysis shows how the percentage of defective item affects the total expected cost. The project work has an important involvement for improvement in the vendor-buyer correlated high-tech supply chain industries.