Prysverlagings op voorraad met ’n dalende vraag

Abstract

Opsomming Hierdie artikel stel 'n heuristiese benadering voor om die verliese op voorraad met 'n dalende vraag en onbekende tydshorison te minimeer. Die twee metodes wat voorgestel word, gebruik 'n benaderde vraagkromme om die verwagte verliese te voorspel. Albei heuristieke gebruik hierdie vooruitskatting om te bepaal wanneer die prys van items in voorraad afgemerk moet word ten einde verkope te versnel om verliese te vermy wat as gevolg van lang omsettye ontstaan. 'n Gevallestudie wat die werklike data van 'n CD-winkel simuleer, word gebruik om die twee heuristieke se prestasie relatief tot die huidige afmerkstrategie van die bestuur te meet. Abstract The problem faced in this paper is a periodic pricing of inventory with obsolescence and an unknown time horizon. Typical inventory items with these properties are music CDs. The periodic pricing of music CDs is used as a tool to manipulate the demand thereof as they become less popular. A CD will, however, not perish in the time it is kept as inventory, as is the case with perishable inventory. This property accounts for the obsolescence. Other kinds of items in inventory that also become obsolete are typical fashion goods, like clothes. Contrary to CDs the demand for these goods do have a known time horizon (usually at the end of a season). The paper starts out by giving an introduction to the problems faced in a CD shop. Back- ground information is given on how CD shops operate. The method of pricing CDs is ex- plained. The current policy at a CD shop of when, and how many orders are placed is explained. This introduction is followed by an overview of relevant literature on various types of inventory problems. The review is structured according to the three properties of the problem. The first property is the pricing of items in inventory. The second property is that items in inventory may be considered as inventory with a random lifetime. The third property is that the items in inventory become obsolete. The subject of the pricing of inventory has received substantial attention in the operations research literature over the years. The conclusion after consultation of the references on the periodic pricing of inventory is that all these articles have two characteristics in common: the time horizon of the items in inventory are considered to be fixed and it is known by how much the price will change. In the problem under consideration only the second characteristic may be assumed. The objective in most of the literature is to find the time when, and how many times the price should be changed.