Discrete-time sliding mode control of perishable inventories with transportation losses

In this paper a new dead-beat sliding mode control algorithm for periodic review supply chains with deteriorating stock is proposed. The main novelty of the paper is the fact that commodity losses in the supply process, i.e. the losses which take place between the order placement and the ordered goods arrival at the warehouse, are explicitly taken into account. A number of desirable properties of the proposed algorithm are stated and formally proved. These properties include full customer demand satisfaction and elimination of the risk of exceeding the controlled warehouse capacity. Furthermore, lower and upper bounds on the amount of goods ordered at each time instant are explicitly formulated. The proposed algorithm is computationally efficient and easy in software implementation.