A multi-item supply chain with multi-level trade credit policy under inflation: A mixed mode ABC approach

this study, a multi-item supplier-wholesaler-retailer-customers supply chain with partial trade credit policy at each level under inflationary effect for a fixed planning horizon is developed and analysed. Here the wholesaler receives a partial credit period from the supplier, i.e., a credit period on a portion of the amount of units purchased. Wholesaler also offers a partial credit period to its retailer and in turn the retailer also offers a partial credit period to its customers to boost the base demand of any item. Here, credit period induced base demand of any item decreases linearly with time. Demand of the items are also influenced by the respective selling prices. The retailer introduces some promotional cost against advertisement and price discount to improve the demand of the items. Here, it is established that if the wholesaler shares a portion of this promotional cost then the profits of both the retailer and the wholesaler improve. Model is formulated as a mixed-integer profit maximization problem and is analysed in crisp as well as in imprecise (fuzzy/rough) environment and some managerial insights are outlined. To find the marketing decision of such a real-life supply chain model, here, a new variant of ABC is proposed for mixed-integer optimization problems. The algorithm is tested against a set of benchmark test problems available in the literature and its efficiency to solve such problems is well established.