Investigating sustained oscillations in nonlinear production and inventory control models

Spiegler, Virginia L. M. and Naim, Mohamed M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3361-9400 2017. Investigating sustained oscillations in nonlinear production and inventory control models. European Journal of Operational Research 261 (2) , pp. 572-583. 10.1016/j.ejor.2017.02.010

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Abstract

Even in a deterministic setting, nonlinearities can yield unexpected dynamic behaviours in a production and inventory control system, such as sustained oscillations or limit cycles. Describing function in combination with simulation is used to analyse the effect of discontinuous nonlinearities on the system responses. Utilising a nonlinear production and inventory control model, we investigate the occurrence of limit cycles and propose a technique to predict their amplitude, frequency and stability and to control such oscillations. Findings suggest that, even for an autonomous production and inventory control system, limit cycles do occur and this periodic behaviour occurs due to non-negativity constraint in the ordering rule. Moreover, we demonstrate the potential of the describing function method to provide insight into the impact of system constraints and therefore facilitate a more effective system design. This paper fills a gap in the literature on nonlinear supply chain dynamics by expanding and complementing the sparse recent research in this area. Most previous studies have either focused on linear mathematical models or relied on simulation, which greatly limit the relevancy and/or rigour of the published results.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics) Centre for Advanced Manufacturing Systems At Cardiff (CAMSAC)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Inventory; Nonlinear supply chain dynamics; Describing function; Rogue seasonality; Limit cycle
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0377-2217
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	10 February 2017
Date of Acceptance:	8 February 2017
Last Modified:	07 Nov 2023 04:09
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/98226

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