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Notes, in recent years, an increase of interest in the field of service parts inventory ‐ particularly in the computer industry. Explains that the computer industry is a highly competitive industry; products have to be repaired as quickly as possible, since slow repair can lead to loss of future business to competitors with better service reputations. Maintains that a good reputation is therefore closely linked to the availability of spare parts on the market. Using a real‐life case study, elaborates on the management and control of service‐parts inventory and gives a brief overview of the contemporary literature on the subject. Presents the solution approach adopted and the results of the study, which indicate that significant savings can be realized through good management of service‐parts inventory.

Information sharing is an important component of cooperation in supply chain management. However, it has long been debated whether there is value in information sharing, how large the value is, if any, and what factors affect it. The purpose of the paper lies in investigating these three issues by comparing and analyzing 12 information models in supply chains.

To achieve the above purpose, the paper first presents a general information‐sharing model in supply chains and characterizes three major factors in the model (objective, supply chain partnership constraint, information sharing constraint). Based on the general model, 12 representative models are selected from the literature and their relationship and distinctions are compared and analyzed.

By insights from comparative analysis of these representative models, the paper concludes that information sharing in supply chains is valuable. However, the value and affecting factors are dependent on analytical methods. It would be meaningless simply to compare the numerical values.

The framework developed in this paper provides a useful guidance for the practical managers in evaluating and measuring the value of information‐sharing strategies.

The paper critically reviews representative information‐sharing models in supply chains. This work is helpful in answering some questions that have been long debated in this area and in inspiring new endeavors to overcome the limitations of current research.

The total yearly costs of medicine usage in The Netherlands are increasing year after year. The Dutch government tries to get this increase under control by price regulations, which forces pharmaceutical manufacturers in The Netherlands to manufacture and distribute more efficiently. In this case study, we analyse for a particular pharmaceutical manufacturer in The Netherlands, whose name is confidential, the outsourcing of distribution in combination with a cyclical planning procedure of the packaging of medicines. Next, this cyclical packaging plan is linked with a new order procedure. The proposed cyclical packaging plan together with the new order procedure appeared to be very favourable compared to the present procedures.

Quantitative forecasting techniques see their greatest application as part of production and inventory systems. Perhaps unfortunately, the problem has been left to systems analysts while the professional societies have contented themselves with exhortations to improve forecasting, neglecting recent developments from forecasting research. However, improvements in accuracy have a direct and often substantial financial impact. This article shows how the production and inventory control forecasting problem differs from other forecasting applications in its use of information and goes on to consider the characteristics of inventory type data. No single forecasting method is suited to all data series and the article then discusses how recent developments in forecasting methodology can improve accuracy. Considers approaches to extending the database beyond just the time‐series history of the data series. Concludes with a discussion of an “ideal” forecasting system and how far removed many popular programs used in production and inventory control are from this ideal.

Examines the impact of humans on the Earth, and how natural resources are related to economic wellbeing. Links evolution and increases in population to natural causes. Discusses the co‐evolution of nature and society, and the unsustainable system that humans have created. Shows how incompatible a market economy is with the preservation of the environment and biodiversity. Concludes that nature will have an impact on policy and cites some examples of this in the USA.

This paper aims to propose a simulation model integrated with an empirical regression analysis to provide a new mathematical formulation for automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) travel time estimation under class-based storage and different input/output (I/O) point vertical levels.

A simulation approach is adopted to compute the travel time under different warehouse scenarios. Simulation runs with several I/O point levels and multiple shape factor values.

The proposed model is extremely precise for both single command (SC) and dual command (DC) cycles and very well fitted for a reliable computation of travel times.

The proposed mathematical formulation for estimating the AS/RS travel time advances widely applied methodologies existing in literature. As well as, it provides a practical implication by supporting faster and more accurate travel time computations for both SC and DC cycles. However, the regression analysis is conducted based on simulated data and can be refined by numerical values coming from real warehouses.

This work provides a new simulation model and a refined mathematical equation to estimate AS/RS travel time.

Spare parts have become ubiquitous in modern societies and managing their requirements is an important and challenging task with tremendous cost implications for the organisations that are holding relevant inventories. An important operational issue involved in the management of spare parts is that of categorising the relevant stock keeping units (SKUs) in order to facilitate decision‐making with respect to forecasting and stock control and to enable managers to focus their attention on the most “important” SKUs. This issue has been overlooked in the academic literature although it constitutes a significant opportunity for increasing spare parts availability and/or reducing inventory costs. Moreover, and despite the huge literature developed since the 1970s on issues related to stock control for spare parts, very few studies actually consider empirical solution implementation and with few exceptions, case studies are lacking. Such a case study is described in this paper, the purpose of which is to offer insight into relevant business practices.

The issue of demand categorisation (including forecasting and stock control) for spare parts management is addressed and details reported of a project undertaken by an international business machine manufacturer for the purpose of improving its European spare parts logistics operations. The paper describes the actual intervention within the organisation in question, as well as the empirical benefits and the lessons learned from such a project.

This paper demonstrates the considerable scope that exists for improving relevant real word practices. It shows that simple well‐informed solutions result in substantial organisational savings.

This paper provides insight into the empirical utilisation of demand categorisation theory for forecasting and stock control and provides some very much needed empirical evidence on pertinent issues. In that respect, it should be of interest to both academics and practitioners.

Performance assessment of layouts requires a systematic approach because of its multi-objective nature. The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework to the performance assessment of layout designs.

A layout performance assessment framework is proposed, grounded on a literature review. Then, the causal relationships and prioritization of the sub-criteria are analyzed by fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory technique in an elevator and escalator-manufacturing firm.

An integrated holistic performance assessment framework, specifically, the 7 criteria, 19 sub-criteria and 112 measures, are studied in this model which represents causal relationships and prioritization of sub-criteria.

The proposed framework can be generalized, because an integrative framework can be used in future empirical studies to analyze performance of layout design. However, the causal relationships and prioritization among sub-criteria are analyzed based on the needs and capabilities of the individual company; therefore, the results of the causal relationships are company specific.

With this framework, the companies may assess their current layout’s performance, may analyze causal relationships and prioritization of sub-criteria.

There are very few models or frameworks regarding the performance assessment of layout designs. In this paper, a new conceptual holistic framework was proposed as three-dimensional hierarchy, which includes the main criteria, sub-criteria and the measures, respectively. Cost, flow, flexibility, surrounding environment, environment quality, time and characteristics are identified as the main criteria for the layout design performance assessment. In addition, cause-effect relationships, which will be the base for improvement of the performance, are found.

This paper aims to propose a supply model of periodic review with joint replenishment for multi-products grouped by several variables with random and time dependence demand.

The products are grouped by multivariate cluster analysis. The stochastic inventory model describes the random demand of each product, considering the temporal dependency through a generalized autoregressive moving average model. Stochastic programming for the total cost of inventory is obtained considering the expected value of the demand per unit of time.

The total costs for the products grouped with the proposed model are 6% lower than for the individual inventory policy. The expected shortage units decrease significantly in the proposed grouped model with temporary dependence. In addition, the proposal with temporary dependency has lower costs than when the independent and identically distributed demand is considered.

The proposed policy is exemplified with real-world data from a Chilean hospital, where the products (drugs) are segmented by grouping variables, forming clusters of drugs with homogeneous behavior within the groups and heterogeneous behavior between groups.

Although a lot of attention has been paid to demand information sharing in the recent decade, few studies look at the value of supply information sharing. The purpose of this paper is to address the importance of timely supply information sharing to the supply chain management under disruption is addressed.

By introducing a Directed Acyclic Supply Network (DASN) model and an Impact Network (INet) model, the impact of a disruption on the performance of the supply chain is quantified. A comprehensive algorithm is developed to calculate the time and cost impact of the disruption. Insights about the value of timely supply information sharing are further discussed, based on quantitative relationships of material flows. Finally, an application of the above model in a main manufacturer of China is introduced. It is then compared to its performance in the case of timely supply information sharing with cases where information is not shared or is shared late.

By timely sharing of supply information, firms at downstream stages can alert a disruption at an upstream stage, derive the correct early warning time, and make proper decisions to offset the impact of the disruption. Information sharing therefore enhances the agility of firms while improving the stability and performance of the whole supply chain.

This paper only considers the time and cost impact from a single source of disruption. Further work may investigate other disruptions, which may arise from multiple sources.

This paper provides an effective method to quantify the impact of a disruption. The method has been successfully applied in a supply chain management information system.

This paper is among the initial studies of understanding and quantifying the value of supply information sharing. The work indicates the importance of timely supply information sharing to improve the performance of a supply chain.