Abstract:
Quality control is an important consideration in food production
systems which often start with farming and processing operations
and finish with consumption. This study develops an integrated
inventory control model for a four-echelon supply chain (with farming,
processing, screening and retail operations). The farmer grows
newborn items and then delivers them to a processor once the
items are mature enough. At the processing plant, the items are
slaughtered, processed, packaged and screened for quality. The
processor then delivers a certain number of equally sized batches
of good quality processed inventory to the retailer who satisfies
customer demand for good quality processed inventory. The processor
sells the processed poorer quality inventory at a discounted
price and as a single batch to secondary markets. The proposed
supply chain inventory system is formulated as a profit maximisation
problem with the number of batches of good quality processed
inventory and the order quantity as the decision variables.
