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336005 
Journal Article 
Inventories with Multiple Supply Sources and Networks of Queues with Overflow Bypasses 
Song, JS; Zipkin, P 
2009 
1 
Management Science
ISSN: 0025-1909
EISSN: 1526-5501 
55 
3 
362-372 
Consider an inventory system with multiple supply sources and Poisson demand. The replenishment lead times from each source are stochastic, representing congestion and disruption. We develop performance evaluation and optimization tools for a family of reasonable order policies. These policies take into account real-time supply information, which can be obtained through tracking technologies such as global positioning systems and radio frequency identification. Performance evaluation of such state-dependent policies is generally hard. The main thrust of this paper is to show that, under these policies, the supply system becomes a network of queues with a special routing mechanism called an overflow bypass. The solution has a simple product form. Thus, we obtain closed-form performance measures. These results reinterpret and extend the existing analysis of a system with two sources having deterministic lead times. We further extend the analysis to batch ordering policies, non-Poisson demand processes, and multiple demand classes. (English) 
inventories; multiple supply sources; stochastic lead times; queuing networks; product-form solutions; Réseau file attente; Personnalisation; Processus Poisson; Quantité économique à commander; Politique optimale; Production par lot; Procédé discontinu; Analyse système; Modélisation; Solution exacte; Routage; Dépendance de létat; Radiofréquence; Système GPS; Poursuite; Pistage; Temps réel; Optimisation; Evaluation performance; Temps mise en route; Réapprovisionnement; Réalimentation; Offre et demande; Gestion stock; Dépassement capacité; File attente; Logistique; Multiplicité; Queueing network; Customization; Poisson process; Economic order quantity; Optimal policy; Batch production; Batch process; System analysis; Modeling; Exact solution; Routing; State dependence; Radiofrequency; GPS system; Tracking(movable target); Tracking; Real time; Optimization; Performance evaluation; Setup time; Replenishment; Refeeding; Supply demand balance; Inventory control; Overflow(computer arithmetics); Queue; Logistics; Multiplicity; Red cola espera; Personalización; Proceso Poisson; Cantidad económica pedida; Política óptima; Producción por lote; Procedimiento discontínuo; Análisis sistema; Modelización; Solución exacta; Enrutamiento; Dependencia del estado; Radiofrecuencia; Sistema GPS; Persecución y continuación; Rastreo; Tiempo real; Optimización; Evaluación prestación; Tiempo iniciacion; Nuevo abastecimiento; Realimentación; Oferta y demanda; Administración depósito; Rebasamiento capacidad; Fila espera; Logística; Multiplicidad