A systematic literature review on the joint replenishment problem solutions: 2006-2015

Abstract

Among all existing inventory replenishment models, this research was dedicated to the Joint Replenishment Problem (JRP), which consists in the replenishment of multiple items simultaneously, aiming total cost reduction. Literature has presented several optimal and approximated solutions to this problem, with different applications and techniques, which results in a large quantity of solution proposals. Therefore, this research aimed to map existing solutions to the problem in 2006-2015 in order to provide a guide for interested parts in JRP and to update previous reviews. Hence, systematic review was used to assess papers from that period interval. From a total of 128 papers, a general trend for seeking JRP extensions and practical applications was verified. Furthermore, the heuristic and metaheuristic methods were the most used and considered the most suitable due to their simplicity in understanding and application.

Keywords
Inventory management; Multi-product; Joint replenishment problem; Systematic review