Multi-echelon inventory control model and algorithm in coal supply chain

Abstract

The inventory control in coal supply chain is an important guarantee for reducing the total inventory costs and running sustainably. This article firstly introduced the multi-echelon inventory control theory into coal supply chain, and established a mathematical model, which was the distributed two echelon inventory control model in coal supply chain, taking total inventory costs minimum in a certain customer service level as the goal. Then genetic algorithm was presented to solve the optimal reorder point, order batches and allocating batches of the regional distribution centers and storage and distribution bases. Finally, concrete examples were calculated separately by the distributed two echelon inventory control strategy in supply chain based on information coordinating center and traditional coal inventory control strategy. The comparing results indicated the effectiveness of the distributed two echelon inventory model and algorithm in coal supply chain based on cost optimization. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg..