Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The value of numerical models in quick response assortment planning
AU - Vaagen, Hajnalka
AU - Wallace, Stein W
AU - Kaut, Michal
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - In agile supply chains, dependencies in demand for products (in particular correlations) as well as substitution among products, vary substantially, and, due to uncertainty in market acceptance, a substantial share of the portfolio item demands follow bimodal distributions. Typically, advanced heuristics and major simplifying assumptions on these dependencies are needed to reduce the complexity to an appropriate level for analytical solutions of models. By applying a single-period stochastic model to the multi-item substitutable newsvendor problem, we demonstrate that simplifying assumptions on distributions and dependencies can lead to rather poor solutions, and as a consequence, numerical models – despite their obvious inability to produce general data-independent results – have an important role to play in assortment planning. By using a brand name sportswear assortment problem, we show that even when technology and supply chain flexibility allows for continuous information and production updates, the underlying distributional and dependency assumptions used in the planning models are crucial. We note, though, that the value of substitution is high and compensates, to some extent for the lack of information. We have found that the expected profit can drop by as much as 30% when simplifications are applied.
AB - In agile supply chains, dependencies in demand for products (in particular correlations) as well as substitution among products, vary substantially, and, due to uncertainty in market acceptance, a substantial share of the portfolio item demands follow bimodal distributions. Typically, advanced heuristics and major simplifying assumptions on these dependencies are needed to reduce the complexity to an appropriate level for analytical solutions of models. By applying a single-period stochastic model to the multi-item substitutable newsvendor problem, we demonstrate that simplifying assumptions on distributions and dependencies can lead to rather poor solutions, and as a consequence, numerical models – despite their obvious inability to produce general data-independent results – have an important role to play in assortment planning. By using a brand name sportswear assortment problem, we show that even when technology and supply chain flexibility allows for continuous information and production updates, the underlying distributional and dependency assumptions used in the planning models are crucial. We note, though, that the value of substitution is high and compensates, to some extent for the lack of information. We have found that the expected profit can drop by as much as 30% when simplifications are applied.
KW - substitution
KW - correlation
KW - assortment
KW - QR
KW - newsvendor
KW - stochastic programming
KW - bimodal distributions
KW - textile apparel
KW - attribute-based planning
U2 - 10.1080/09537287.2010.498576
DO - 10.1080/09537287.2010.498576
M3 - Journal article
VL - 22
SP - 221
EP - 236
JO - Production Planning and Control
JF - Production Planning and Control
SN - 0953-7287
IS - 3
ER -