Supply planning under uncertainties in MRP environments: A state of the art

Abstract

Inventory control in a supply chain is crucial for companies desiring to satisfy their customers demands as well as controlling costs. This paper examines specifically supply planning under uncertainties in MRP environments. Models from literature that deal with random demand or lead time uncertainties are described and commented. Promising research areas emerge from this survey. It appears that lead time uncertainty has been ignored in the past, in spite of their significant importance. In particular, an interesting topic concerns assembly systems with uncertain lead times, for which the main difficulty comes from the inter-dependence of components inventories. Another promising issue, which is also presented, relates to supply planning under simultaneously demand and lead time uncertainties, which is certainly of great interest for both the academic and industrial communities.