Numerical Research on Multi-item Partial Postponement Model

This paper focuses on partial postponement strategy with multiple items. We first build a basic multi-item partial postponement model which ignores the influence of customers´ waiting cost. Then we propose an effective algorithm to solve this basic model and obtain the approximate optimal quantities of generic and finished items. Finally, we develop a partial postponement model considering customer waiting cost. The results of numerical examples show that if the waiting cost is taken into account, the expected waiting time increases with the increase of the quantity of generic good while the increase rate declines.