A newheuristictosolvetheone-warehouse N-retailer problem

We dealwithamulti-echeloninventorysysteminwhichonewarehousesuppliesanitemtomultiple retailers. Customerdemandarrivesateachretailerataconstantrate.Theretailersreplenishtheirin- ventories fromthewarehousethatinturnordersfromanoutsidesupplier.Itisassumedthatshortages are notallowedandleadtimesarenegligible.Thegoalistodeterminereplenishmentpoliciesthat minimize theoverallcostinthesystem.Wedevelopaheuristictocomputeefficientpolicies,whichalso can easilybeusedinaspreadsheetapplication.Themainideaconsistsoffindingabalancebetweenthe replenishment andtheinventoryholdingcostsateachinstallation.Thisnewheuristicwecomparewith two otherapproachesproposedintheliterature;thecomputationalstudiesshowthatinmostofthe instances generatedthenewmethodprovideslowercosts.