Inventory Control of Perishable Items in a Two-Echelon Supply Chain

In this paper, we develop an inventory model for perishable items with random lifetime in a two-echelon production-distribution system. There is a manufacturer at the first stage that produces its product with a constant rate. Deterioration in this stage is modeled via a two-parameter Weibull distribution. At the second stage, the retailer places the order and receives the product instantly. The deterioration rate at this stage is a three-parameter Weibull distribution, which its initial value depends on the time the product has spent in the first stage before being transferred. The behavior of different key parameters of the model is analyzed using numerical studies.