Abstract:

The paper concerns supply chain management and optimisation of the retailer’s warehouse policy, focusing on the problem of selecting optimal parameters for product deliveries to the retailer’s warehouse. The experiments described in the paper ask the question of what values of the rbs (retailer’s base stock level size) and dbs (delivery batch size) parameters provide the retailer with maximum net profit and, at the same time, allow to achieve the assumed level of customer trust in the retailer. To obtain the answer, a multi-agent simulation was used, implemented in the NetLogo environment, in which an appropriate software tool was developed. This tool allows to create simulation models and allows to analyse, among others, parameters related to deliveries to the retailer and warehouse policy. The research results for the analysed case study indicate that optimal settings with rbs equal to 35 pcs and dbs equal to 50 pcs allow to achieve the highest net profit while maintaining a high level of customer trust. The results also show nonlinear relationships between dbs and the retailer’s profit and customer trust. The results obtained and the developed tool are important for managers and decision makers in the retail sector, who can use them to adjust their inventory management policy. Research can be continued in many directions. One of them is to consider variable delivery time.