This document summarizes and evaluates different supply chain strategies for a model with one vendor and multiple buyers. It finds that strategies involving consignment inventory, delayed deliveries, and information sharing between buyers can optimize supply chain costs and other decision variables. Specifically:
- A strategy combining consignment inventory, delayed deliveries of up to 4 shipments, and information sharing between 2 buyers yielded the lowest total supply chain cost of $3,120.
- Allowing for delayed deliveries (the CI-k1 model) generally reduced costs compared to the basic consignment inventory model (CI), by lowering maximum inventory levels held by buyers.
- Enabling information sharing between buyers (the CI-IS