Retail

Summary

Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and then sells in smaller quantities to consumers for a profit. Retailers are the final link in the supply chain from producers to consumers. Retail markets and shops have a very ancient history, dating back to antiquity. Some of the earliest retailers were itinerant peddlers. Over the centuries, retail shops were transformed from little more than "rude booths" to the sophisticated shopping malls of the modern era. In the digital age, an increasing number of retailers are seeking to reach broader markets by selling through multiple channels, including both bricks and mortar and online retailing. Digital technologies are also affecting the way that consumers pay for goods and services. Retailing support services may also include the provision of credi

Official source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retail

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Optimization of sample size and order size in an inventory model with quality inspection and return of defective items

Rafael Batista, Naoufel Cheikhrouhou

To ensure all products as perfect, inspection is essential, even though it is not possible to inspect all products after producing them like some special type products as plastic joint for the water pipe. In this direction, this paper develops an inventory model with lot inspection policy. With the help of lot inspection, all products need not to be verified still the retailer can decide the quality of products during inspection. If retailer founds products as imperfect quality, the products are sent back to supplier. As it is lot inspection, mis-clarification errors (Type-I error and Type-II error) are introduced to model the problem. Two possible cases are discussed for sending back products as defective lots are immediately withdrawn from the system and send back to supplier with retailer's payment and for second case, retailer sends defective products during receiving next lot from supplier with supplier's investment, like in food industry or in hygiene product industry. The model is solved analytically and results indicate that optimal order size and sample size are intrinsically linked and maximize the total profit. Numerical examples, graphical representations, and sensitivity analysis are given to illustrate the model. The results suggest that sending defective products maintaining the first case is the more profitable than the second case.

SPRINGER2018

EPFL2013

As concerns over environmental sustainability rise, corporations must extend their efforts to improve their environmental performance while at the same time realizing economic growth. The endeavor represents challenges on both strategic and operational fronts, in particular regarding supply chains. This dissertation is thus motivated by the opportunity for businesses to improve their overall performance through their supply chain strategies and operations. In the first research project, we address the strategic opportunities by developing a theoretical framework to identify the dynamic capabilities required to obtain environmentally sustainable supply chains. We break down the internal and external capabilities in three hierarchical levels of organizational structure, and illustrate an application of the framework with a case study on the "Zero waste to disposal" initiative of Nestlé. In the second research project, we focus on the operational opportunities by analytically optimizing the replenishment frequency of perishable products between two supply chain levels. We model the manufacturer-retailer relationship as a Stackelberg game and show that raw material and finished goods lifetimes are interrelated through the replenishment cycle, and that they significantly impact supply chain costs. In the final project, we address both strategic and operational opportunities by empirically modelling the drivers of spoilage for days-fresh products, in our case fruits and vegetables, using daily supply chain data from Migros, Switzerland's largest retailer. We quantify to what extent inventory, promotions, delivery type, commitment changes, order variations, order cycle, and quality issues influence spoilage, and emphasize the necessity for specialized supply chain processes, tracking inventory age, and collaboration with supply chain partners for this fundamental product category.

EPFL2017