On the interaction between retailers inventory policies and manufacturer trade deals in response to supply-uncertainty occurrences.

This paper models a retailer’s response to temporary manufacturer’s trade deals characterized by a time interval of random length and of uncertain duration. Uncertainty is handled primarily through the establishment of a reordering point, which serves as a trigger mechanism for new special orders. The timing at which this point is activated becomes another decision variable to be determined optimally. The model generates relatively easy-to-implement ordering policies, applicable to any probability distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]