Discrete-event simulation to support the management of perishable inventory – A review

Abstract

The importance of inventory management has been widely acknowledged both in practice and in academic research, with perishable products constituting an additional complexity in the field. Discrete Event Simulation (DES) is amongst the most frequently used Operations Research methods that allow the incorporation of stochasticity (reflective of the real-world environment) in modelling the system of interest. Beyond providing a general overview of the publications, the review provides a more detailed analysis of model characteristics(e.g., model objectives and outputs, issuing policy), focusing on supply and demand uncertainty, and identifies possible opportunities for further research. As the first review paper in this area, our work will serve as a key reference on the state-of-the-art in DES for inventory control and its application in the management of supply chains in healthcare, retail and domains that handle perishable inventory. Amongst the important findings is that lifetime is generally assumed to be known a priori, neglecting the product lifetime uncertainty.