Improve production balance for apparel supply chain adopting VMI replenishment strategy

This paper analyzed the replenishment problem faced by manufacturer who adopts the Vendor Management Inventory (VMI) replenishment strategy with different retailers in apparel supply chain. An optimization replenishment model with the consideration of production capacity constraints was proposed. A simulation program was presented to generate the VMI replenishment strategy to satisfy the customer service level (CSL) required by the retailers. With the consideration of the production capacity constraints, a rolling optimization of the VMI replenishment strategy using simulation and genetic algorithm was then formulated to optimize production balance of manufacturers. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed replenishment strategy could benefit the manufacturers with balanced production, meanwhile maintain the CSL required by different retailers at a certain degree.