Inventory control of perishables in supermarkets

Abstract In the last decade large supermarket chains have started developing and implementing automated store ordering (ASO) systems in order to improve both the quality and efficiency of the inventory replenishment decisions in their stores. These ASO systems have been developed mainly for non-perishables. The aims of this paper are 1. to better understand the product, sales and supply characteristics of perishables in supermarkets, 2. to define and operationalise relevant concepts in controlling the inventories of perishables, 3. to investigate how the intelligence in ASO systems in supermarkets can be further improved, 4. to give academics empirically based insight in the relevance of the inventory models that are currently available in the literature, insight in relevant parameter settings and insight in which models are needed. The research is carried out in cooperation with two Dutch supermarket chains and focusses on perishable items. To further improve the intelligence in the ASO systems, we will classify the items in a supermarket, based on the notion that different items need different inventory control rules. For every class of items, we describe the main logistic characteristics; moreover, for the perishable items we describe the inventory control rules which are currently being applied and we discuss the desired inventory control strategy for these items. Keywords: Inventory management; Perishables; Empirical data; Classification; Retail; Model; Distributio