For the service times, we consider three phase-type distributions with parameter . The phase-type distributions have the same mean of 1 but each one of them is qualitatively different. The values of the standard deviation of the distributions are, respectively, 0.70711, 1, and 2.24472. The distributions are normalized at a specific value for the service rate .
5.1. The Effect of parameters on performance measures
We discuss the behavior of the performance measures under various the service time distributions and the arrival processes for the Model-1 with
-policy and Model-2 with
-policy in
Table 2,
Table 3,
Table 4,
Table 5,
Table 6,
Table 7,
Table 8,
Table 9,
Table 10,
Table 11,
Table 12 and
Table 13. Towards this end, the reorder point is fixed by
and the maximum inventory level is fixed by
. The values of the other parameters can be seen in
Table 1.
Firstly, we investigate the effects of the rates
,
,
and
on the mean number of
c-customers in the system
under the various scenarios in
Table 2 for Model-1 with
-policy and in
Table 3 for Model-2 with
-policy.
As expected, the mean number of
c-customers in the system increases with increasing values of
in
Table 2. When looking only at ERLA arrivals, it is seen that the variability in
-distribution is important. Especially in high traffic intensity situations. For example, at
(high intensity), the values of
are 7.559, 8.458 and 16.444 for ERLS, EXPS, and HEXS, respectively, and at
(low intensity), the values occur 3.239, 3.490 and 5.611 for ERLS, EXPS, and HEXS, respectively. Similar comment can be made when HEXA arrivals occur. On the other hand, variability in
affects the values of
more compared to the variability in PH-distribution. Let’s look ERLS services. The values of
are 3.239 for ERLA and 7.730 for HEXA at
; are 7.559 for ERLA and 20.759 for HEXA at
. Also, we can say that the values of
dramatically increases in the case of HEXS (service with high variability) compared to the other
-distributions.
As values of
increase, the values of
increase in
Table 2. Comments similar to those above can be made regarding the effect of variability in
process and
-distribution.
In
Table 2, the mean number of
c-customers in the system decreases with increasing the arrival rate of
n-customers
or the service rate of
c-customers
as expected. The effect of variability in
process and
-distribution on the values of
is seen as
(or
) increases. Again, variability in the
process (variability in the inter-arrival times in other words) appears to be more significant compared to variability in
-distribution, especially when the system has high traffic intensity (i.e., see the cases of
or
).
All comments made for
Table 2 can also be made for
Table 3. Compared to the values in
Table 2, it can be seen that the values of
in
Table 3 are higher, especially at high traffic intensity. In addition, we can say that the variability in
process or
-distribution is more effective when the inventory policy is
. That is, as the system becomes denser, the increment or decrement becomes faster.
Secondly, we discuss the effects of the rates
,
,
and the probability
on the mean number of items in the inventory
under the various scenarios in
Table 4 for Model-1 with
-policy and in
Table 5 for Model-2 with
-policy.
As the number of
c-customers (by
or
) or catastrophic events (by
) in the system increase, the mean inventory level in the system decreases. As expected, the values of
increase with the increment of the
n-customer in the system (
). On the other hand, the values of
increase with increasing variability (from ERLS to HEXS for
-distribution or from ERLA to HEXA for
process). Also, it is seen that when the system is dense, the effect of variation in arrival process is greater than the effect of variation in service times in
Table 4 and
Table 5. We note the values in
Table 5 (at
-policy) are slightly lower.
Thirdly, we examine the effects of the rates
,
,
and the probability
on the mean reorder rate in
Table 6Table 7 and the mean order size in
Table 8Table 9 under the various scenarios.
As seen in
Table 4Table 5, the decrease in the mean number of items in the inventory occurs with the increase in the number of customers in the system (by increasing the
and
rates) or with the increase of catastrophes events (by increasing the
rate). The more customers there are, the more item in the inventory is needed. Therefore, it is seen that by increasing the values of
(by increasing the values of
or
), the values of the mean reorder rate increase in
Table 6Table 7 and the values of the mean order size in
Table 8Table 9. On the other hand, it is obvious that as
n-customers come more frequently, the number of
c-customers in the system will decrease (i.e., less item in the inventory will be needed). For the system under
-policy, it is seen that the values of
and
decrease with increasing
in
Table 6 and
Table 8, respectively. Similarly, the values of
and
decrease with increasing
in
Table 7 and
Table 9, respectively, for the system under
-policy.
In all four parts (parts related to
,
,
,
) of
Table 6 or
Table 7, the values of the mean reorder rate decrease with increasing the variability in
-distribution (ERLS and HEXS). On the other hand, with increasing the variability in
(ERLA and HEXA), the values of the mean reorder rate decrease in some parts (i.e., part
in
Table 6) and first increase and then decrease in some parts (i.e., part
in
Table 6). Similarly, when looking at the four parts of
Table 8 or
Table 9, it is seen that with the increase in the variability of
-distribution, the values of the mean order size increase in some parts (i.e., part
in
Table 8), decrease in some parts (i.e., part
in
Table 9), and first increase and then decrease in some parts (i.e., part
in
Table 9). That is, we cannot talk about a specific behavior regarding the effect of variation.
Table 8Table 9 also shows an irregular behavior with increasing variation in
.
The results in
Table 6,
Table 7,
Table 8 and
Table 9 are for specific values of the parameters. The increases or decreases seen with increasing of variability depend on the values of the parameters. So, what we can clearly say is that the values of the mean order rate and the mean order size will definitely be affected by variability (instead of increase or decrease with variability).
When
Table 6 and
Table 7 are compared (when
Table 8 and
Table 9 are compared), it is seen that the results in the system under
-policy are larger (smaller) than the results in the system under
-policy. Additionally, as the values of the performance measures faster increase (or decrease) with the increase of the values of the parameters in the system under
-policy.
Finally, we examine the effects of system parameters on the mean lost rate of
c-customers in the system. Let’s recall,
c-customers can lost in the system studied in two cases; If there is no inventory at the time the
c-customer comes to the system, he does not enter the system with probability
(he is said to be lost)- this case is indicated by
in
Table 10Table 11, and the arrival of
n-customers to the system causes the loss of one
c-customer- this case is denoted by
in
Table 12Table 13.
As the value of
or
increases, the probability that the inventory is stock-out increases. This increases the rate at which
c-customers are lost due to lack of item in the inventory. On the other hand, as
increases, the probability of the inventory falling to zero decreases (as it reduces the number of
c-customers in the system), which causes the values of
to decrease. As an interesting result, it is seen that as
probability increases, the values of
decrease even though the number of
c-customers in the system increases. All results can be seen in
Table 10 for the system under
-policy and
Table 11 for the system under
-policy.
As expected, as long as there are
c-customers in the system,
c-customers will disappear as
n-customers arrive. Therefore, it can be seen in
Table 12 and
Table 13 that
values increase as the values of all parameters increase.
5.2. Optimization
For the described two models, the function of the expected total cost,
, is constructed and an optimization discussion about inventory policies is provided for some specific parameters. In the equation (
18), we note that
is the mean order size of the system with
-policy for
and of the system with
-policy for
.
where
the fixed cost of one order,
the unit cost of the order size,
the holding cost per item in the inventory per unit of time,
the damaging cost per item in the inventory,
the cost incured due to the loss of a c-customer,
the waiting cost of a c-customer in the system.
Towards finding the optimum values of the inventory level (that minimize
) for the both model, we fix
,
,
,
,
and
and vary the reorder points
. Also, we fix the unit values of the defined above costs by
,
,
,
,
and
. Under various distributions of the service times and arrival processes, we give the optimum values of
and
S in
Table 14 for the system under
-policy and in
Table 15 for the system under
-policy.
Let’s look at the cases of ERLA, EXPA and HEXA in
Table 14. As the variability in arrival processes increases (respectively, ERLA, EXA and HEXA), the optimum value of
S also increases. For both ERLS and EXPS services, the optimum
S is generally the same, while the optimum cost varies slightly. In all cases, HEXS services with high variability require more inventory in the system. When the reorder point
s is increased, the values of
S generally do not change except for HEXA arrivals. However, in the case of HEXA, the optimum
S is seen to decrease as
s increases.
In
Table 14 let’s look at the MNCA and MPCA cases where there is correlation. In negatively correlated arrivals (MNCA), the results in the HEXS service are significantly different from the others and the increase in the values of
s is of no significance. On the other hand, in positively correlated arrivals (MPCA), the increase in the values of
s and the increase in the variability in service times are separately very important. That is, as the variability in
-distribution increases, the values of
S increase, and as the reorder point increases, the values of
S decrease.
First, it is noticeable that the optimum values of
S in
Table 15 are larger than the values in
Table 14, while there is not much difference between the optimum cost values. In other words, in the
-policy, there is a need to keep more inventory in the system. Although more inventory is carried, the total cost is almost the same as under the
-policy.
The comments made for
Table 14 regarding the variability of service times or arrival process can also be said for
Table 15. As variation increases, more inventory is needed. Also, positive correlation is important for the system under
-policy similar to the system under
-policy.
Finally, the important difference between the two tables is the effect of the reorder point
s. As the values of
s increases, the values of
S remain the same or decrease in
Table 14 ( as we mentioned above). In
Table 15, as the values of
s increases, the values of
S remain the same or increase.