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To cite this article: G. Kannan , M. C. Grigore , K. Devika & A. Senthilkumar (2013) An analysis of the general benefits
of a centralised VMI system based on the EOQ model, International Journal of Production Research, 51:1, 172-188, DOI:
10.1080/00207543.2011.653838
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International Journal of Production Research
Vol. 51, No. 1, 1 January 2013, 172188
An analysis of the general benefits of a centralised VMI system based on the EOQ model
G. Kannana*, M. C. Grigorea, K. Devikaa and A. Senthilkumarb
a
Department of Business and Economics, University of Southern Denmark,
Odense 5230, Denmark; bDepartment of Mechanical Engineering,
Anna University of Technology Tiruchirappalli Panruti Campus, Panruti, India
(Received 28 October 2011; final version received 24 December 2011)
Within a vendor-managed inventory (VMI) agreement, the upstream supply chain member (the vendor) takes
responsibility for managing the inventory of the downstream member (the customer) within specific levels
previously agreed upon without the need of orders from the customer side to be placed. Therefore, the vendor
can focus on optimising production efficiency and capacity planning, while the customer has to improve
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forecast accuracy. This paper analyses the benefits a VMI agreement could bring for a one-supplier, multiple-
customer case through analysing two cases: a supply chain managed in a traditional manner and VMI when
both the vendor and the customers belong to the same organisation. The analysis is based on the economic
ordering quantity (EOQ) formula and its related total cost, and the novelty is captured by evaluating one
vendor, multiple buyers, and multiple product situations. The modelling is done so as to capture the needs and
factors which occur within the pharmaceutical industry and a numerical application will be executed with data
from one of the main leaders within the pharmaceutical field.
Keywords: traditional supply chain; VMI supply chain; general benefits based on EOQ modelling;
pharmaceutical industry
1. Introduction
Due to the global expansion of large companies, competition all over the world is becoming stronger and therefore
an increasing need to obtain competitive prices is pushing industries to take on new challenging, strategic methods.
One of the recently recognised methods is the replacement of the traditional supply chain with the vendor-managed
inventory (VMI) supply chain. It has been proven in many different papers that the VMI supply chain is superior to
the traditional supply chain and can bring significant cost savings to the participants.
A traditional supply chain refers to the system within which each of the members at the different stages make
decisions regarding replenishment quantities and timing so as to minimise cost at their end of the supply chain. The
supply chain usually consists of all stages, starting at the raw material supplier and continuing on until the finished
product reaches the end customer. All the different stages are linked by their common aim of providing the right
product to the right customer in the promised time.
VMI is a replenishment supply chain technique that has been implemented since the beginning of the 1980s by
Wall-Mart and Procter & Gamble (Waller et al. 1999), and has its roots back in 1958 when Magee (1958) first
introduced the concept.
Within a VMI agreement, the upstream supply chain member (the vendor) takes responsibility for managing the
inventory of the downstream member (the buyer) within specific levels previously agreed upon without the need for
orders from the customer side to be placed. Therefore, the vendor can focus on optimising production efficiency and
capacity planning, while the customer has to improve forecast accuracy.
The success of VMI is dependent on communication between the partners, their willingness to share data,
collaboration and coordination, and an information technology system which enables fast access to critical
information (Duchessi and Chengalur-Smith 2008).
The general characteristics of a traditional supply chain and of a VMI supply chain, formed by three stages, are
presented in Figure 1.
The research here is meant to offer a simple overview of the possible outcomes after VMI implementation in a
two-stage supply chain, between the vendor and its multiple buyers. The analysis focuses on the overall supply chain
cost impact, which VMI can show under specific conditions, based on the practical experience learned in the
pharmaceutical industry.
Using VMI in a supply chain brings transparency regarding essential information among the partners, thus
giving the opportunity at each stage to adjust the decisions in a timely manner and avoid emergency situations.
The VMI supply chain implies coordination between the partnering stages, continuous information sharing, and
regular meetings where critical issues are discussed and follow-up actions are noted.
The general benefits model analysed in this paper is based on the economic ordering quantity (EOQ) model and
is an extension of Bookbinder et al.s (2010) paper. As an extension of the aforementioned work, the model has been
adjusted to integrate different requirements and constraints from within the pharmaceutical industry. It has been
further extended from analysing a one-vendor, one-buyer deterministic demand case to analysing a one-vendor,
multiple-buyer stochastic demand case.
The mathematical model applies to two echelons, the vendor and its multiple buyers. An observation is made
here to distinguish that the buyers are not the end-consumers but represent sales organisations from each country.
At the same time both the vendor and buyers belong to the same organisation.
In the literature, one of the main challenges when implementing VMI has been identified in providing the right
incentives for all partners to do their best for the supply chain and the right contract to share the overall profits
(Nagarajan and Rajagopalan 2008).
The fact that both stages belong to the same organisation facilitates simpler developments further. There is no
need for complicated contracts for profit sharing between the two partners in a VMI case, as the most important
thing is the total supply chain profit. It can be assumed that both partners have the right incentives to increase
overall supply chain profits.
Based on the assumptions above, the traditional supply chain model is developed according to its general
characteristics within which the centralised organisation does not show any impact, while the VMI model is
developed as and when decisions are taken centrally to obtain overall supply chain cost reductions.
2. Literature review
The literature review of this paper is divided into two categories: first, an overview of general positive characteristics
observed after the VMI implementation (or) assumed to occur behind the theoretical model and then the second
174 G. Kannan et al.
part looks at the literature which clearly focused on the EOQ modeling to determine the potential benefits of a VMI
supply chain.
the buyer.
Blatherwick (1998), Disney et al. (2003), and Sari (2008) identified that VMI can be outperformed by other
strategies in specific situations.
A general overview of different benefits which can be achieved through a VMI partnership is displayed in
Table 1.
Authors
Achabal
et al: 2000
Ching and Tai (2005)
Claassen
et al: 2008
Disney and Towill (2002b)
Dong and Leung (2009)
Duchessi and Chengalur
Smith 2008
Fox (1996)
Fulcher (2002)
Holmstrom (1998)
Kaipia
et al: 2002
Kauremaa
et al: 2009
Kiesmuller and
Broekmeulen 2010
Kim (2005)
Kuk (2004)
Kulp (2002)
Nachiappan
et al: 2007
Razmi
et al: 2010
Szmerekovsky and
Zhang 2008
Sari (2007 and 2008)
Tyan and Wee (2003)
Waller
et al: 1999
Yu and Huang (2010)
Benefits
(continued )
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Table 1. Continued.
Authors
Achabal
et al: 2000
Ching and Tai (2005)
Claassen
et al: 2008
Disney and Towill (2002b)
Dong and Leung (2009)
Duchessi and Chengalur
Smith 2008
Fox (1996)
Fulcher (2002)
Holmstrom (1998)
Kaipia
et al: 2002
Kauremaa
et al: 2009
Kiesmuller and
Broekmeulen 2010
Kim (2005)
Kuk (2004)
Kulp (2002)
Nachiappan
et al: 2007
Razmi
et al: 2010
Szmerekovsky and
Zhang 2008
Sari (2007 and 2008)
Tyan and Wee (2003)
Waller
et al: 1999
Yu and Huang (2010)
Benefits
related, company related, or supplier related. In addition to the researchers mentioned in Table 1, the following
researchers have also analysed the benefits of the VMI system (Disney and Towill 2002b, Sourirajan et al. 2008,
Bakal and Geunes 2009, Battini et al. 2009, Wang 2009, Liu and Cetinkaya 2010, Borade et al. 2011).
Zhang et al. (2007) developed an integrated VMI, where a joint cost model was built under the assumption of
constant demand rate and production. The model evaluates the impact on the total cost function when varying the
ordering cost. Ordering costs can be reduced through a VMI partnership, and the partners can share the benefits.
Later, a model to indicate the general benefits which a VMI partnership could bring, and adjusted to the
pharmaceutical case, will be developed.
Many authors have focused their attention on the analysis of the VMI performance based on constant demand
characteristics, for which the EOQ model represents the basis for the analysis. While researching the general benefits
of VMI based on EOQ model literature, one of the gaps identified is the fact that evaluations were done strictly
between one vendor and one buyer. The only exception is identified in Zhang et al. (2007), who considered two
buyers but focused on order cost reduction evaluation.
Based on the findings in the literature, this paper extends previous research and analyses the possible benefits
when dealing with one vendor and multiple buyers assuming a stochastic, constant type of demand.
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As a solution to this matter, VMI implementation has been identified as a powerful method with a very high
probability of bringing the expected outcome. As the department preferred an analysis to integrate their specific
conditions and make sure that such a method would bring significant benefits in the long term, it has been decided
to focus on general benefit model development.
4. Mathematical model
While in a traditional supply chain the costs of each member are clearly defined, in the case of VMI, different ways
of sharing costs have been proposed in the literature.
The traditional supply chain (SC) and the VMI supply chain have been thoroughly analysed, and a clear
distinction of the cost division between the two stages has been made. One extreme case has been described by
Razmi et al. (2010), who transferred all costs to the vendor when implementing VMI. Other authors have evaluated
how total costs are influenced when transferring some of the costs from buyer to vendor in a VMI case.
Many VMI pioneers have argued that a vendor has greater benefits under VMI due to its chance of better
coordinating its production. However, this can be challenged by the fact that the vendor will need to increase the
number of resources to allow for extra responsibilities. As already mentioned in the introduction of this paper, this is
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not as critical in a centralised organisation as the overall savings are more important.
Calculations of the costs of each member have been made to capture all their relevant constraints.
In order to compensate the variability in demand, the model includes a safety stock (SS) quantity. The safety
stock represents a buffer stock maintained at any stage of the supply chain to better deal with demand variability
and to ensure high customer service levels (Chopra and Meindl 2001).
Capturing the characteristics of the pharmaceutical industry represents the main focus of the model and, based
on the numerical application, it will be possible to evaluate whether or not VMI implementation would bring
significant cost savings to the overall supply chain.
Notations
D annual demand
mi number of buyers
ni number of products
hb buyers inventory-carrying cost/item/year
ab buyers cost of issuing an order
rb buyerscost for receiving goods cost
tb buyers transportation cost
Ab buyers overall ordering cost (Ab ab rb tb)
q1 buyers EOQ for traditional supply chain case
q2 buyers EOQ for VMI case
SSb1 buyers safety stock in the traditional supply chain
SSb2 buyers safety stock in the VMI case
hv vendors inventory-carrying cost/item/year
av vendors cost of issuing an order
tv vendors transportation cost
Q1 vendors EOQ for traditional supply chain case
Q2 vendors EOQ for VMI cases
SRv vendors shipment release cost
S vendors production set-up cost
p vendors annual production
inventory-holding costs incurred by the vendor until the next order is received as the vendor can only send to the
buyer the ordered quantity.
Very often this situation is encountered when the two parties belong to two different organisations. This
situation is also encountered in the case described here, as the two parties make their own decisions, despite both
stages belonging to the same organisation.
Some communication between the two parties takes place, but this is not the optimal solution and does not
necessarily influence the decisions taken within the supply chain. The buyers still place the orders when they need to
and the order quantity is identified so as to minimise costs at their end.
From pharmaceutical industry experience, it has been observed that buyers prefer to order in larger quantities
and maintain a high SS on their side in order to manage demand variability and supply inefficiencies.
Other reasons for high order quantities could be:
. slow quality assurance check ups,
. required licenses when importing goods from different countries, or
. an attempt to reduce the number of orders placed over the year to use fewer resources.
High ordering quantities do not mean only cash flow blocked in inventory but also results in higher amounts of
SS carried to manage the demand fluctuation over a longer period of time.
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The costs encountered by the two parties under a traditional SC are shown in Table 2.
Following the thinking from the EOQ model and the cost separation presented in Table 2, the total costs
incurred by the buyer can be written as:
D q
Total costTrad sc b tb rb ab hb 1 ssb1 1
q1 2
The total cost formula assumes the number of orders placed per year and their correlated ordering cost in the first
term and the second term represent the inventory-holding costs associated with the cycle inventory and the SS
quantity maintained.
Integrating the SS as a parameter of the holding cost represents one of the differences from the model developed
by Bookbinder et al. (2010) who did not consider an SS within the calculations. The SS is added in our case to
overcome fluctuations in demand.
From the total costs above, the optimal order quantity of the buyer is deducted as:
s
2 Ab D
q1 EOQ1 Same as in Bookbinder et al: 2010 2
hb
The buyer observes the demand from the customers and its inventory levels and, based on this information, then
places an order quantity equal to that of q1 to the vendor (when a re-order point is reached). This represents a make-
to-order environment, as the delivery time from vendor to buyer includes the time the vendor needs to produce the
product as well.
Having received an order from a buyer, the vendor adjusts the production quantity according to its capacity
utilisation and tries to achieve economies of scale and increase productivity. The vendors responsibility is to fulfil
the orders received from buyers, but it has no influence on changing the delivery date in order to send a shipment to
one buyer with a significantly higher need than another buyer.
The total cost incurred by the vendor can be written as:
S SRv hv D Q1
Total costTrad SC v D q 1 3
Q1 q1 2 1 p 2
The novelty of the total cost formula for the vendor is identified in the inventory-carrying cost term, where Q1 is
divided in half. This division is undertaken in order to assume a reduction in the venders holding costs as most of
the products are sold to at least two buyers, which means that the remaining quantity is moved faster to the next
stage and fewer inventory-carrying costs are incurred. Even when there are more than two buyers for a product, in a
traditional SC coordination of order placements is difficult to achieve and therefore the assumption of reducing the
inventory-carrying cost only once should be feasible.
180 G. Kannan et al.
By taking the derivative of its total cost, the vendor obtains the EPQ to minimise the total cost:
v
u 4 SD
u
Q1 EPQ1 t 4
hv 1 Dp
The vendor calculates the production quantity regardless of a buyers order quantity and looks for the cost
optimisation on his side. This implies that the vendors production quantity might be greater than the buyers
demand. Nevertheless the production quantity must be at least as high as the requirements received. Producing more
than the demand means extra inventory-carrying costs for the vendor and this is a choice that the vendor will take to
optimise his benefits.
As presented above, the decisions regarding order quantity or production quantity are taken independently by
the buyers and the vendor. This is the general case encountered in a traditional supply chain.
Table 2. Traditional supply chain: costs partition of the two Table 3. VMI supply chain: costs partition of the two
echelons. echelons.
The SS has different values for the two models as VMIs success is dependent on forecast accuracy improvement
and this means that a lower SS will be possible under VMI due to the improved forecast.
As observed in the total cost formula in Equation (5) above, the buyer encounters fewer costs than in a
traditional SC. Besides the transfer of the transportation and order-issuing costs to the vendor, fewer inventory-
carrying costs are paid due to the lower safety stocks required. The benefit of having fewer costs represents the
trade-off for the fact that now, the vendor is the one deciding the replenishment quantities and the timing.
Under VMI, the vendor decides production, replenishment quantity, and replenishment timing. This gives the
vendor the possibility of optimising production scheduling, transportation costs, and inventory-carrying costs. Due
to the improved communication between the two stages, the vendor has better information about the demand
fluctuations and can better prepare for such events.
Under VMI, the total cost of a vendor is:
S SRv tv av hv D Q2
Total costVMI SC v D D q2 1 6
Q2 q2 ni q2 ni q2 2 p mi
The novelty of the formula above represents the fact that transportation and order-issuing costs are reduced, as the
assumption made in the beginning stated that each buyer that enters a VMI partnership should be buying at least
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v
u 2 m SD
u i
Q2 EPQ2 t 8
hv 1 Dp
In this case, the EOQ is no longer a variable for the buyer, but is calculated so as to optimise the vendors total cost
function. The vendor is the one identifying these quantities and informs the buyer the value of a replenishment
quantity q2.
The central decision making, which is opted for under VMI, is meant to improve total supply chain profits.
Improved supply chain profits under centralised decision making have been recognised by many authors, but Toptal
and Cetinkaya (2006) have proven its efficiency through numerical analysis.
Throughout this model, the differences in the formulas for a traditional versus a VMI supply chain have been
captured. These are consolidated in Table 4.
182 G. Kannan et al.
Table 4. Summary of total costs and EOQ/EPQ data.
Vendor Buyer
v v
u 2m SD u
u i u2D SRv tv av
Q2 EPQ2 t t ni ni
hv 1 Dp q2 EOQ2
hv
hb $12,825 hv $1280
ab $1000 av $1000
rb $1000 SRv $1000
tb $500 tv $500
Ab $2500 S $2000
SSb1 400 units P 7200 units
SSb2 350 units D 6000 units
5. Numerical application
This section applies the model developed in the previous section and evaluates the two types of supply chains
impact on costs in different situations. The model is applied to three categories of products, A, B, and C, so as to
observe the impact on cost savings based on product classification.
This evaluation should give an appropriate understanding if VMI implementation, it should cover all ranges of
stock keeping units (SKUs) or only parts of them, and, even more importantly, it should evaluate if higher benefits
are reached under VMI compared to traditional systems.
For each category of SKU, four different cases have been analysed, and below a short overview of the results is
presented. More details for the calculations are given in appendix A.
Buyers Products Case 1 Buyers Products Case 2 Buyers Products Case 3 Buyers Products Case 4
$600,000
$500,000
Cost savings under
$400,000 VMI Case 1
$0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Figure 2. Cost savings under VMI (general benefits) for A Class SKUs.
parameters within the developed VMI model. The cost savings of an A SKU obtained under different circumstances
from the VMI model compared to the traditional model are shown in Table 6 and in Figure 2.
The savings obtained for the A range SKUs are quite high, considering that even the lowest savings that could be
achieved extend up to $200,000 per year.
It is observed from Figure 2 that the greatest impact on savings comes from the number of products handled for
one buyer. Both cases 3 and 4 are giving close savings when the number of products are considered as 10 (no matter
how big the number of buyers is).
The conclusion is that handling a larger number of products for one buyer under VMI will bring significant cost
savings due to reduction in transportation, administration, and inventory-carrying costs.
Having a larger number of products purchased by a larger number of buyers will bring the highest cost savings
over all the supply chain and both partners will gain significant benefits.
In cases 1, 2, and 3, it has been observed that although overall supply chain costs have been significantly
decreased, but the vendor will incur higher costs under VMI than under the traditional system. This is in line with
some of the findings of other researchers (Mishra and Raghunathan 2004, Yao et al. 2007, Pasandideh et al. 2010,
Zavanella and Zanoni 2009), but at the same time, due to the fact that overall supply chain cost savings are the most
important for both members, this issue is not further debated here.
184 G. Kannan et al.
Table 7. B Class SKU parameters (general benefits).
hb $3000$ hv $800
ab $900 av $900
rb $800 SRv $800
tb $450 tv $450
Ab $2150$ S $1000
SSb1 350 units P 7300 units
SSb2 200 units D 7100 units
Buyers Products Case 1 Buyers Products Case 2 Buyers Products Case 3 Buyers Products Case 4
$600,000
$500,000
Cost savings under
$400,000 VMI Case 2
$0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Figure 3. Cost savings under VMI (general benefits) for B Class SKUs.
B class SKUs have a significant impact on cost savings, and for this specific case the maximum savings are close
to the ones obtained from the A SKUs. Looking at the four cases, it is observed that the same pattern as for the case
of A SKUs is followed.
hb $300 hv $200
ab $600 av $600
rb $700 SRv $700
tb $400 tv $400
Ab $1700$ S $500
SSb1 3300 units P 51,000 units
SSb2 2500 units D 44,500 units
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Table 10. C Class SKUs: cost savings under VMI (general benefits).
Buyers Products Case 1 Buyers Products Case 2 Buyers Products Case 3 Buyers Products Case 4
$600,000
$500,000
Cost savings under
$400,000 VMI Case 1
Cost savings under
$300,000 VMI Case 2
Cost savings under
$200,000 VMI
Cost savings under
$100,000
VMI Case 4
$0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Figure 4. Cost savings under VMI (general benefits) for C Class SKUs.
186 G. Kannan et al.
Therefore, for a successful VMI application and significant improvement in the results within the
pharmaceutical industry, the focus should be on identifying and choosing the right products and buyers as
mentioned below.
(1) Universal products which are purchased by many different buyers (this gives the flexibility to reach the
desired EPQ without incurring extra inventory-holding costs)
(2) Buyers who are purchasing a larger range of SKUs (this is an important factor for the cost reduction of
transportation consolidation and administration)
(3) Focus on A and B classes of products as they will bring higher savings than the C class in the beginning of
the implementation. Nevertheless, C class SKUs also have a cost-saving impact and they should not be
completely ignored but could be transferred to VMI at a later stage, when the first level of implementation is
complete. This will give more confidence and trust to the process by the participants
The application above has been executed for a narrow range of SKUs, however great improvements in the cost
direction have been proven to be possible. This analysis proves that adopting VMI within the pharmaceutical
industry, under the conditions mentioned in this research, will result in significant overall supply chain cost reduction.
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Appendix A
A detailed calculation of the A, B, and C classes of SKUs, which shows the costs encountered under the traditional supply chain
and the VMI supply chain within the four cases, can be found at the following website: http://sites.google.com/site/gkannan80/
assignments/vmi-ijprpaperappendix-a