Cyclical schedules for one-warehouse, multi-retailer systems with dynamic demands

In a one-warehouse, multi-retailer system, a cyclical schedule is character ised by fixed order intervals at the warehouse and retailers. Cyclical sche dules offer advantages in terms of simplicity and ease of control, but unde r dynamic demand conditions they are higher in cost than non-cyclical sched ules. This study presents a mathematical formulation of the cyclical proble m, and then outlines an algorithm to obtain optimal solutions. An experimen t is then conducted to investigate the additional cost of cyclical schedule s as a function of problem characteristics relevant to one-warehouse, multi -retailer systems. Results show that coefficient of demand variation has th e strongest effect on the additional cost of cyclical scheduling. However, even at relatively high levels of demand variation, the additional costs of cyclical scheduling are quite moderate.