A different approach to the Joint Replenishment Problem

In this paper, a heuristic method is presented which gives a novel approach in solving joint replenishment problems. Our heuristics is from the beginning a basic spreadsheet model that solves the JRP in an iterative procedure. The principle of the recursion procedure is to find a balance between the replenishment- and inventory holding cost for the different items by adjusting the replenishment frequencies. The heuristic is also tested according to an extensive test template, with a great amount and variety of problems. The method shows pleasing results concerning the closeness to optimality and performs well in comparison with many other heuristics.