Supply planning and inventory control under lead time uncertainty: a literature review and future directions

Abstract

The majority of publications in the scientific literature investigate stochastic demand processes with constant order lead times. In practice, inventory management software like MRP is used by companies even if ignored the uncertainty of lead times. In this work, we investigate the influence of this type of uncertainty and existing solutions proposed in the scientific literature. To do this, ARTIREV tool is used to identify the major schools of thought competing in the filed and highlight the current and emerging research themes. One conclusion is obvious from this preliminary work. Even though lead times are very disruptive to supply chain, as seen during the Covid crisis, most of the work is still only interested in the uncertainties related to demand.