IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/orinte/v45y2015i3p228-242.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tactical Inventory Planning at Alcatel-Lucent’s Repair and Exchange Services

Author

Listed:
  • Mustafa K. Doğru

    (Verizon Communications, Basking Ridge, New Jersey 07920)

  • Ulaş Özen

    (Ozyegin University, Cekmekoy, İstanbul, 34794 Turkey)

Abstract

Alcatel-Lucent, a major telecommunications equipment manufacturer, provides equipment, solutions, and services to customers worldwide. Post-sales support services are a growing business segment for the company, and require significant investment in spare parts. The inventory investment constitutes a considerable portion of the total cost of providing post-sales support services for new customer contracts; it is also an important element in estimating new contract offerings and evaluating and redesigning business processes that affect inventories. Because of Alcatel-Lucent’s two-echelon supply chain structure, inventory sizing for post-sales support services is a complicated task that spreadsheet applications cannot handle adequately. Thus, the company’s repair and exchange services (RES) group needed a fast, user-friendly, and generic software solution with advanced analytic capabilities to support its business tendering and evaluation processes. To meet this requirement, we developed the tactical inventory planning tool, which uses stochastic modeling and optimization algorithms, for this purpose. Although the tool’s primary function is to support the RES business tendering process, it has also been useful in other business analysis because of its generic nature.

Suggested Citation

  • Mustafa K. Doğru & Ulaş Özen, 2015. "Tactical Inventory Planning at Alcatel-Lucent’s Repair and Exchange Services," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 45(3), pages 228-242, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:45:y:2015:i:3:p:228-242
    DOI: 10.1287/inte.2014.0782
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/inte.2014.0782
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/inte.2014.0782?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Craig C. Sherbrooke, 1968. "Metric: A Multi-Echelon Technique for Recoverable Item Control," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 16(1), pages 122-141, February.
    2. Kathryn E. Caggiano & Peter L. Jackson & John A. Muckstadt & James A. Rappold, 2007. "Optimizing Service Parts Inventory in a Multiechelon, Multi-Item Supply Chain with Time-Based Customer Service-Level Agreements," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 55(2), pages 303-318, April.
    3. R. M. Simon, 1971. "Stationary Properties of a Two-Echelon Inventory Model for Low Demand Items," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 19(3), pages 761-773, June.
    4. Stephen C. Graves, 1985. "A Multi-Echelon Inventory Model for a Repairable Item with One-for-One Replenishment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(10), pages 1247-1256, October.
    5. Leon Yang Chu & Zuo-Jun Max Shen, 2010. "A Power-of-Two Ordering Policy for One-Warehouse Multiretailer Systems with Stochastic Demand," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 492-502, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. de Kok, Ton & Grob, Christopher & Laumanns, Marco & Minner, Stefan & Rambau, Jörg & Schade, Konrad, 2018. "A typology and literature review on stochastic multi-echelon inventory models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 269(3), pages 955-983.
    2. Olof Stenius & Ayşe Gönül Karaarslan & Johan Marklund & A. G. de Kok, 2016. "Exact Analysis of Divergent Inventory Systems with Time-Based Shipment Consolidation and Compound Poisson Demand," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 64(4), pages 906-921, August.
    3. Al Hanbali, Ahmad & van der Heijden, Matthieu, 2013. "Interval availability analysis of a two-echelon, multi-item system," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 228(3), pages 494-503.
    4. Chew, E. P. & Johnson, L. A., 1996. "Service level approximations for multiechelon inventory systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(3), pages 440-455, June.
    5. Graves, Stephen C., 1989. "A multi-echelon inventory model with fixed reorder intervals," Working papers 3045-89., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    6. Guide, V. Daniel R. & Srivastava, Rajesh, 1997. "Repairable inventory theory: Models and applications," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 102(1), pages 1-20, October.
    7. Huaxiao Shen & Tian Tian & Han Zhu, 2019. "A Two-Echelon Inventory System with a Minimum Order Quantity Requirement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-22, September.
    8. Tsai, Shing Chih & Zheng, Ya-Xin, 2013. "A simulation optimization approach for a two-echelon inventory system with service level constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 229(2), pages 364-374.
    9. Guillermo Gallego & Özalp Özer & Paul Zipkin, 2007. "Bounds, Heuristics, and Approximations for Distribution Systems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 55(3), pages 503-517, June.
    10. Vinayak Deshpande & Morris A. Cohen & Karen Donohue, 2003. "An Empirical Study of Service Differentiation for Weapon System Service Parts," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 51(4), pages 518-530, August.
    11. Vinayak Deshpande & Ananth V. Iyer & Richard Cho, 2006. "Efficient Supply Chain Management at the U.S. Coast Guard Using Part-Age Dependent Supply Replenishment Policies," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 54(6), pages 1028-1040, December.
    12. Lina Johansson & Fredrik Olsson, 2017. "Quantifying sustainable control of inventory systems with non-linear backorder costs," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 259(1), pages 217-239, December.
    13. Rezaei Somarin, Aghil & Chen, Songlin & Asian, Sobhan & Wang, David Z.W., 2017. "A heuristic stock allocation rule for repairable service parts," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 131-140.
    14. Jovan Grahovac & Amiya Chakravarty, 2001. "Sharing and Lateral Transshipment of Inventory in a Supply Chain with Expensive Low-Demand Items," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(4), pages 579-594, April.
    15. Costantino, Francesco & Di Gravio, Giulio & Tronci, Massimo, 2013. "Multi-echelon, multi-indenture spare parts inventory control subject to system availability and budget constraints," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 95-101.
    16. Izack Cohen & Morris A. Cohen & Elad Landau, 2017. "On sourcing and stocking policies in a two-echelon, multiple location, repairable parts supply chain," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(6), pages 617-629, June.
    17. Johansson, Lina & Olsson, Fredrik, 2018. "Age-based inventory control in a multi-echelon system with emergency replenishments," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(3), pages 951-961.
    18. Stenius, Olof & Marklund, Johan & Axsäter, Sven, 2018. "Sustainable multi-echelon inventory control with shipment consolidation and volume dependent freight costs," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 267(3), pages 904-916.
    19. Yunzeng Wang & Morris A. Cohen & Yu-Sheng Zheng, 2000. "A Two-Echelon Repairable Inventory System with Stocking-Center-Dependent Depot Replenishment Lead Times," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(11), pages 1441-1453, November.
    20. Basten, R.J.I. & van der Heijden, M.C. & Schutten, J.M.J., 2012. "Joint optimization of level of repair analysis and spare parts stocks," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 222(3), pages 474-483.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:45:y:2015:i:3:p:228-242. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.