Management and Control

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IFAC Conference
Conference on Manufacturing Modelling,
June 28-30, 2016. on Manufacturing
Troyes, France Modelling,
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
Management and
Management and Control
Control
June 28-30, 2016. Troyes, France
June 28-30, 2016. Troyes, France
ScienceDirect
IFAC-PapersOnLine 49-12 (2016) 1685–1690
Optimisation of the replenishment problem in the Fashion Retail Industry using
Optimisation
Optimisation of
of the
the replenishment
Tabu-Bees
replenishment problem
problem in
in the
algorithm the Fashion
Fashion Retail
Retail Industry
Industry using
using
Tabu-Bees
Tabu-Bees algorithmalgorithm
Giada Martino*, Baris Yuce**, Raffaele Iannone*, Michael S. Packianather***
Giada
Giada Martino*,
Martino*, Baris
Baris Yuce**,
Yuce**, Raffaele
Raffaele Iannone*,
Iannone*, Michael
Michael S.
S. Packianather***
Packianather***


*Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, 84084, Fisciano (SA)
*Department of Italy (e-mail: gmartino@unisa.it, riannone@unisa.it).
*Department of Industrial
** BRE Industrial Engineering,
Centre forEngineering,
Sustainable
University
University of
Engineering,
Salerno,
of Cardiff Via
Via Giovanni
Salerno,School Giovanni Paolo
Paolo II
of Engineering,
132,
132, 84084,
IICardiff
84084, Fisciano
Fisciano (SA)
University, (SA)
Italy
Italy (e-mail:
(e-mail: gmartino@unisa.it,
gmartino@unisa.it, riannone@unisa.it).
riannone@unisa.it).
** Cardiff CF243AA, UK (e-mail: YuceB@cardiff.ac.uk)
** BRE
BRE Centre
***Mechanics,Centre for
for Sustainable
Materials Sustainable
and
Engineering,
Engineering,
Advanced
Cardiff School
CardiffCardiff
Manufacturing,
of
of Engineering,
SchoolSchool
Engineering, Cardiff University,
CardiffCardiff
of Engineering, University,
University,
Cardiff
Cardiff CF243AA,
CF243AA, UK
UK (e-mail:
(e-mail: YuceB@cardiff.ac.uk)
YuceB@cardiff.ac.uk)
***Mechanics, Cardiff CF243AA, UK (e-mail: PackianatherMS@cf.ac.uk)
***Mechanics, Materials and Advanced Manufacturing, Cardiff School of Engineering, Cardiff University,
Materials and Advanced Manufacturing, Cardiff School of Engineering, Cardiff University,
Cardiff
Cardiff CF243AA,
CF243AA, UKUK (e-mail:
(e-mail: PackianatherMS@cf.ac.uk)
PackianatherMS@cf.ac.uk)
Abstract: The problem of properly allocating several different products in the stores network is one of
the crucial The processes
problem in theof Retail Industry. This means trying to meet market demandnetwork and at the same
Abstract:
Abstract:
time reducing The logistics
problem costs.of properly
properly
In this
allocating
allocating
context,
several
several
main
different
different
aims of the
products
products
presented
in the
the stores
in work stores
are tonetwork
(a)
is
is one
otpimise onetheof
of
the
the crucial
crucial processes
processes in
in the
the Retail
Retail Industry.
Industry. This
This means
means trying
trying to
to meet
meet market
market demand
demand and
and at
at the
the same
same
replenishment
time process costs.for the this retailer’s networkaims of ofcompanies withwork multi-product multi-store
time reducing
reducingand
configuration
logistics
logistics
(b) costs. aIn
propose Innew context,
context, main
thisalgorithm main
which aims of the
combines thethe presented
presented
Basic work
Bees
are
are to
algorithm, to (a) otpimise
(a)a swarm
otpimise the
the
based
replenishment
replenishment process
process for
for the
the retailer’s
retailer’s network
network of
of companies
companies with
with multi-product
multi-product multi-store
multi-store
optimization technique,
configuration and with the Tabu-Search principles. Attention is focused algorithm,
on the particular case of
configuration
lost sales and and (b)
budget
propose
propose aa new
(b) constraints new
for a
algorithm
algorithm
fashion
which
which combines
company. combines
Simulation
the Basic
Basic Bees
the results Bees
show algorithm,
that the use
aa swarm
swarm
of the
based
based
Tabu-
optimization
optimization technique,
technique, with
with the the Tabu-Search
Tabu-Search principles.
principles. Attention
Attention is
is focused
focused on
onthethe particular
themodel
particular case
case ofof
Beessales
lost algorithm
and budgetcan guarantee
budget constraintsanfor average
for a fashion
fashion 10% improvement
company. in results
Simulation resultsallowing
show that that the use to
the use of overcome
the Tabu-
Tabu-
lost
local sales and constraints a company. Simulation
minima. can guarantee an average 10% improvement in results allowing the model to overcome results show of the
Bees
Bees algorithm
algorithm can guarantee an average 10% improvement in results allowing the model to overcome
© 2016,
local
local
Keywords: IFACBasic
minima.
minima. (International Federation of Tabu
Bees Algorithm, Automatic Control)
Search, Hosting byAlgorithm,
Tabu-Bees Elsevier Ltd. Swarm All rightsIntelligence,
reserved.
Optimisation,
Keywords: Basic Replenishment,
Basic Bees Bees Algorithm, Fashion
Algorithm, Tabu Retail, Apparel
Tabu Search, Industry,
Search, Tabu-Bees Supply
Tabu-Bees Algorithm, Chain Management.
Algorithm, Swarm Swarm Intelligence,
Intelligence,
Keywords:
Optimisation, Replenishment, Fashion
Optimisation, Replenishment, Fashion Retail, Apparel Retail, Apparel
 Industry, Supply Chain
Industry, Supply Chain Management. Management.
 This demand-supply mismatch is highly important in the last
1. INTRODUCTION
ring
This of the supply chain, i.e. retailers, since any corrective
1. This demand-supply
demand-supply mismatch
mismatch is highly
iscostly important
highly(Flores,
important in the
the last
in 2014). last
In a fast changing environment1. INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION of the Retailing Industry, the action ring ofmaythe be late, difficult,
supply chain, andretailers,
i.e. since et al.,
any corrective
ring
In of the
this context, supply chain,
the purpose i.e. retailers,
ofcostly since
the presented any corrective
work is to
generic problem environment
of allocatingofinventory from a central action
In
In aa fast
fast changing
warehouse changing
to severalenvironment
locations
the
the Retailing
ofsatisfying
Retailing Industry,
Industry,
separate demand
the action may
the optimise may the
be late,
late, difficult,
difficult, and
bereplenishment and
processcostly (Flores,
(Flores,
using a new
et
et al.,
al., 2014).
2014).of
version
generic
generic problem of
of allocating inventory from aa central In
In this context, the purpose of
of the presented
presented work is
is to
streams,
warehouse
problem
is toconsidered
several
allocating inventory
one ofsatisfying
locations
from
the mostseparate crucial central the this
issue, optimise
demand Beescontext,
Algorithm
the
the which
replenishment
purpose includes
process
the Tabu-Search
using a new
work
principles
version
to
of
warehouse to several locations satisfying separate demand optimise the replenishment process using a new version of
especially for companies that manage an extended network of and Bees is called Tabu-Bees Algorithm. In this study, the
streams,
streams, This
stores.
is
is considered
considered
so-called
one
one of
of the the most
“Replenishment mostor crucial
crucial
Distributionissue, the
issue, the Bees Algorithm
replenishment Algorithm
problem
which
which
analysed
includes
includesrefers
Tabu-Search
Tabu-Search
to a fashion
principles
principles
company
especially for
for companies that manage an
an extended network of and is
is called
and manages called aTabu-Bees
Tabu-Bees Algorithm. In In this study, the
especially
Process”This
stores.
companies
principally
so-called aimsthatat manage
dynamically
“Replenishment
extended
optimizing
or
network of that
stores
Distribution replenishment network
problem ofAlgorithm.
analysed bothrefersfranchising
to a
this and
fashion
study,
company
the
direct-
stores. This so-called “Replenishment or Distribution replenishment problem analysed refers to a fashion company
assortment, in terms aims of items, colours, andoptimizing sizes, trying to operated
that managesmono-brand
aa network stores. of This implies that the decisions
Process” principally
Process”
ensure
principally
high product aims at at dynamically
availability
dynamically
and to minimizeoptimizing
overstock
stores
stores
or that manages
concerning the distribution of both
network strategies both franchising
franchising
are directly
and
and direct-
taken direct-
by the
assortment,
assortment, in
in terms
terms of
of items,
items, colours,
colours, and
and sizes,
sizes, trying
trying to
to operated
operated mono-brand
mono-brand stores.
stores. This
This implies
implies that
that the
the decisions
decisions
out of stock events (Iannone, et al., 2015). With particular main company,
concerning the and with these all the consequences and risks
ensure
ensure high
hightoproduct
product availability
availability and
and to
to minimize
minimize overstock
overstock or the distribution
concerning(Martino,
or connected distribution
et al.,
strategies
strategies are
2015). are directly
directly taken
taken byby thethe
attention
out of stock the
events Fashion
(Iannone, andet Apparel
al., 2015). Industry,
With market
particular main company, and with these all the consequences and risks
out of stock events (Iannone, et al., 2015). With particular main company,
The rest of(Martino, and
this paper with these all the consequences
is organized as follows. A literature and risks
demand is to
significantly affected byApparel
the inventory level, i.e. by connected et
attention
attention to the
the Fashion
Fashion inand and Apparel Industry,
Industry, market market connected
review on (Martino,
the et al.,
al., 2015).
replenishment 2015). process in the fashion retail
the availability of products the stores (Martìnez-de-Albèniz The rest of this paper is organized as
demand
demand
& Boada
is
is significantly
significantly
Collado, 2014).
affected
affected by
by
Specifically,
the
the inventory
inventory
with lower
level,
level, i.e.
i.e.
inventory
by
by The rest
industry of
is this
presented paper in is organized
section 2. as follows.
Sectionfollows.
3 and
A
A4 literature
literature
describe
the availability of
of products in the stores (Martìnez-de-Albèniz review review on
on thethe replenishment process in
in the fashion retail
the
&
availability
levels,
Boada customers
Collado,
products
may
2014).
in thethestores
not Specifically,
find right(Martìnez-de-Albèniz
size,lower
with or the respectively
desired industry
inventory is the replenishment
presentedBasicinBees section
process and
algorithm
2. Section
the
the
3
fashion
new
and 4
retail
proposed
describe
& Boada Collado, 2014). Specifically, with lower inventory industry is presented in section 2. Section 3 and 4 describe
colour and thus the sales
not will
findbe thelower. Concerning out-of- model: the Tabu-Bees
respectively the algorithm. The replenishment problem
levels, customers
levels, customers may
may not find the right size,
right size, or the
or the desired
desired respectively and
considered the Basic
Basic Bees
Bees algorithm
the examined algorithm
objectives
and
and thethe new proposed
are new proposed
presented in
stock
colour events,
and thus instead,
the sales customers
will be may
lower. behave
Concerning differently:
out-of- model: the Tabu-Bees algorithm. The replenishment problem
colour and model: the Tabu-Bees algorithm. The
the replenishment problem
deciding
stock to thus
events,
the salesproduct
buyinstead,
another will beinlower.
customers the
may sameConcerning out-of-
store,differently:
behave to buy the section
considered 5, whileand section
the 6 reports
examined objectivesexperimental
are data
presented andin
stock product
events, in instead, considered and the the conclusions
examined objectives are presented are in
same
deciding to buy anothercustomers
another store or
product in
may behave
through
the same web
store,
differently:
andto mobile
buy the results.
section Finally,
5, while section 6 reports and
the future perspectives
experimental data and
deciding
channels to buy
(Lanzilotto another product
, et al.,store
2015), in the
to same
wait until store,
theandto buy
product the section
is given 5, while
in section 7. section 6 reports the experimental data and
same
same product
product in
in another
another store or
orAll through
through web
web and mobile
mobile results.
results. Finally,
Finally, the the conclusions
conclusions and and future
future perspectives
perspectives are are
available
channels or not
(Lanzilotto to ,buy
et at
al., all.
2015), to these
wait cases
until the of course
product is given in section 7.
channels (Lanzilotto , et al., 2015), to wait until the product is 2. LITERATURE
given in section 7. REVIEW: THE REPLENISHMENT
generate
available customer
or dissatisfaction. A different case is
available orbynot
not to
to buybuy at at all. All
All these
all. fashion these cases
cases of
ofa course
course 2. PROBLEM IN THE RETAIL INDUSTRY
represented
generate overstocks.
customer Since
dissatisfaction. A items suffer
different strong
case is 2. LITERATURE
LITERATURE REVIEW: REVIEW: THE THE REPLENISHMENT
REPLENISHMENT
generate customer dissatisfaction. atAthe differentof thecase is PROBLEM IN
depreciation
represented by byover time,
overstocks. in particular
Since fashion
fashion endsuffer
items a selling
strong AlthoughPROBLEM there is a wide IN THE
THE range RETAIL INDUSTRY
of literature
RETAIL INDUSTRY on both supply
represented
season, unsold overstocks.
stock will Since
be disposed items
at highly suffer a strong
discounted chain and there
retailing replenishment planning and optimisation,
depreciation
depreciation over time,
over time, in in particular
particular at the end of
at the endmargins. the selling
of the selling only Although
Although there is a wide
is a wide range
range of literature
of literature on
on both
both on supply
supply
prices
season, thus significantly
unsold stock reducing
will be contribution
disposed at highly discounted chain few
and researchers
retailing have
replenishment focused their and
planning attention
optimisation, the
season, unsold stock will be disposed at highly discounted chain and
particular retailing
case replenishment
of the fashion planning
retail industry and optimisation,
(Iannone,on et the
al.,
prices thus significantly reducing contribution
prices thus significantly reducing contribution margins. margins. only few researchers have focused
only few researchers have focused their attention on the their attention
particular
particular casecase of of the
the fashion
fashion retailretail industry
industry (Iannone,
(Iannone, et et al.,
al.,
Copyright © 2016 IFAC 1685
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Peer review
Copyright © under
© 2016 responsibility
2016 IFAC
IFAC of International Federation of Automatic
1685Control.
Copyright
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IFAC MIM 2016
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June 28-30, 2016. Troyes, France Giada Martino et al. / IFAC-PapersOnLine 49-12 (2016) 1685–1690
2013) or on fashion luxury firms (d'Avolio, et al., 2015). This
industry, in fact, presents several issues such as: a wide
product and customer variety, a very short product life cycle,
a highly unpredictable, seasonal, and impulsive demand also
influenced by shelf availability (Lanzilotto, et al., 2014).
Concerning the replenishment problem, some of these
problems have been separately analysed by different authors:
- (Grewal, et al., 2015) and (Al-Zubaidi & Tyler, 2004)
focused on the seasonality of the demand using a discrete
event simulation;
- (Coelho & Laporte, 2014) and (Novotna & Varysova,
2015) analyse the joint problem of replenishment and
inventory for perishable or deteriorating products;
- (Zhu, 2013) evaluate both supply and demand
uncertainties in a price-sensitive demand context;
- (Bijvank, et al., 2015) include lost sales costs in the
replenishment policies;
- (Anily & Hassin, 2013) focuses on customer
heterogeneity related to purchasing choices;
- (Pan, et al., 2009) consider uncertain factors, such as
market changes, in an agent-based model to define the
optimal reorder point and replenishment quantity
between retailer and manufacturer;
- (Abbott & Palekar, 2008) study single store multi-
product problem in which product sales are influenced
by shelf availability and display-space.
Besides the sole replenishment process, other researchers
dealt with the joint problem of replenishment and
delivery/transportation for a retail supply chain with several
different products (Cardòs & Garcìa-Sabater, 2006), with
different locations and distribution centres (Qu, et al., 2015)
and with heterogeneous items (Qu, et al., 2013). In addition,
the introduction of a RFID technology in those processes
((Cui, et al., 2014), (Condea, et al., 2012), (Thiesse & Buckel,
2015) or the use of collaborative mechanisms (Lyu, et al.,
2010) may improve efficiency.
Other related studies, instead, investigate only on single
location single product (Rossi, et al., 2011) or single retailer
multiple suppliers (Adeinat & Ventura, 2015) cases.
Given these considerations, the main purpose of the presented
study is to analyse a complete problem with a multi-product
multi-store configuration, stochastic demand, lost sales, and
budget constraint.
3. THE BASIC BEES ALGORITHM
The Bees algorithm is an intelligent optimisation algorithm
imitating the natural foraging behaviour of honey bees.
During the harvesting season, in fact, bees are able to
discover food sources employing part of the colony’s
population (called scout bees) in a random search (Tereshko
& Loengarov, 2005). Once the potential nectar sources are
discovered, these bees return to the hive and start the ritual
“waggle dance” to communicate to the other bees the location
of the nearest food source and its quality (Seeley, 1996).
After that, the dancer bee goes back to the food source with
its followers (called recruited bees) to perform a local search
in the neighbourhood of the patch. The number of recruited
bees for each patch depends on its quality: patches with more
and more easily available nectar will attract more bees. While
the recruited bees are locally searching, other scout bees will
1686
continue the random global search to look for other possible
food sources. This bee colony behaviour is reproduced in the
basic Bees Algorithm (Yuce, et al., 2013) as per pseudo-code
reported in Table 1.
Table 1. Pseudo-code of the basic bees algorithm
1. Generate initial population of n random solutions
2. Evaluate the objective function for the initial population
3. Sort the initial population based on the objective
function
4. While (stopping criterion not met)//forming new
population
5. Select e elite patches and b best patches for
neighbourhood search
6. Recruit ne forager bees for the elite patches and nb for
the best patches
7. Evaluate the objective function for the foragers bees
and select the representative bee for each patch
8. Assign the remaining (n-e-b) bees for the random
search and evaluate their objective function
9. Sort the population based on their objective function
10. End while
The model requires some initial parameters to be set: number
of scout bees (n), number of elite (e), and best (b) patches and
their size (ngh), number of recruited bees for elite (ne) and
best (nb) patches. The first step of the algorithm is the
random search of the scout bees, which are randomly placed
in the defined space (step 1). For each of the random points,
the model evaluates the objective function (step 2) and sort
them (step 3) from the highest to the lowest for a
maximisation problem (vice versa for a minimisation
problem). The first points, elite and best patches, are selected
for the local search (step 5) and recruited bees (step 6) are
sent in the neighbourhood (ngh) of these patches to explore
other near points (step 7). All the other bees will continue the
random global search (step 8). The iteration of the algorithm
will stop when the stopping condition is met. Most used
stopping conditions are:
 Maximum number of iteration;
 Maximum number of iterations without significant
improvements;
 Expected value achievement;
 Minimum gradient value.
4. THE PROPOSED TABU BEES ALGORITHM
The proposed Tabu-Bees Algorithm uses the principles of the
Tabu Search (Glover, et al., 2007) which involves an
adaptive memory and a responsive search. As the Basic Bees,
also the Tabu Search performs a local or neighborhood
exploration but its main purpose is to allow classic methods
to overcome local minima. For this reason, Tabu Search also
allows non-improving moves and prevents going back to
previously visited solutions by memorizing them in the Tabu-
List. For our particular purpose, the Tabu-Search is used in
the selection of the elite and best patches to avoid stopping in
the same points for too many iterations without any
improvement. The pseudo-code of the Tabu-Bees Algorithm
is reported in Table 2.
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Table 2. Pseudo-code of the Tabu-Bees algorithm Table 3. Nomenclature of the replenishment problem
1. Generate initial population of n random solutions i=1, .., n Nr. of items
2. Evaluate the objective function for the initial population j=1, .., m Nr. of stores
3. Sort the initial population based on the objective t=1, .., T Nr. of time ranges
function sijt sales of the i-th item in the j-th store at the t-th
4. While (stopping criterion not met)//forming new time range
population pri Market price of the i-th item
5. Select e elite patches and b best patches for Invijt Inventory of the i-th item in the j-th store at the
neighbourhood search t-th time range
6. If (any of the elite or best patches is repeating more dijt Market demand for the i-th item in the j-th store
than n_tabu times)//creating Tabu-List at the t-th time range
7. Include the repeating point in the Tabu-List fijt Sales forecasts for the i-th item in the j-th store
8. Generate r random points and evaluate the objective at the t-th time range
function unc Uncertainty of sales forecasts
9. Select the best of these random points Qijt Delivered quantity of the i-th item to the j-th
10. If (the best random point is better than the points in the store at the t-th time range
Tabu-List)//updating patches cui Unitary purchase cost of the i-th item [€/pcs]
11. Replace the patch with the new random value cs Unitary stock-out cost expressed as a
12. Else keep the old patch value percentage of cui
13. End if ctf Fixed transport cost[€/delivery]
14. End if ctv Variable transport cost [€/pcs*Km]
15. Recruit ne forager bees for the elite patches and nb for distj Distance [km] between the j-th store and the
the best patches central warehouse
16. Evaluate the objective function for the foragers bees chf Fixed holding cost [€]
and select the representative bee for each patch chv,i Variable holding cost of the i-th item expressed
17. Assign the remaining (n-e-b) bees for the random as a percentage of cui
search and evaluate their objective function trange Nr. of days in each time range
18. Sort the population based on their objective function The Revenues (R) are defined as:
19. End while n m T
R   s ijt * pri (1)
The main difference of this proposed model with the basic i 1 j 1 t 1
bees algorithm is represented by the two “if” loops (point 6-
Where the market price (pri) is supposed to be constant over
14 and 10-13). When one or more of the elite or best patches
time and the sales (sijt) are defined as:
are repeating more than n_tabu times, these points are
memorized in the Tabu-List (step 7), while the model sijt  min{ Invijt , d ijt } (2)
generates other random points (step 8). If any of these
random points are better than Tabu-List points, these new Which means that if the market demand (dijt) is greater than
values will replace the old ones as best or elite patches (step the stock available in the stores (Invijt), the company cannot
11), otherwise the algorithm will use the old values for one satisfy all the demand.
more iteration (step 12). Even if it does not actually allow The demand follows a uniform distribution in a fixed range
non-improving moves, the proposed model uses a memory centred in the sales forecasts (fijt) and of width equal to twice
(Imanguliyev, 2013) for recording repeating local minima the uncertainty (unc):
points and tries to avoid these cases by searching for new (3)
better random points. d ijt  [ f ijt * (1  unc), f ijt * (1  unc)]
5. DESIGN OF THE OPTIMISATION PROCESS: THE while the inventory of the stores are defined as:
REPLENISHMENT PROBLEM (4)
Invijt  Qijt  sijt  Invij (t 1)
Main objective of the replenishment problem is the
maximisation of the profit, intended as the difference We suppose that the inventory level at time 0 is null
between Revenues and total Costs, trying to satisfy the whole (Invij0=0). Shortage in stores’ stock will cause Stock-Out
market demand. For this particular study, we are referring to Costs (CS), defined as:
a multi-product, multi-store, and multi-period model with a n m T
marked demand that follows a uniform distribution in a fixed d  Invijt
 c s * cu i *  (d ijt  Invijt ) ijt
i 1 j 1 t 1
range and is independent from other items or stores. The CS   (5)
replenishment problem also evaluates lost sales and is subject 
to a budget constraint. The nomenclature used to describe the  0 d ijt  Invijt
problem is reported in Table 3.
The other cost items included in our model are:
 Purchase Cost (CP):

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n m T number of time ranges (t) fixed to 4. Due to the randomness

C P   cu i *  Qijt (6) of the demand, each configuration is simulated 10 times.
i 1 j 1 t 1
Table 4 Clothing Items parameters
it is the total cost for buying products to deliver to the stores.
i Description cu [€] pr [€] chv [%]
 Transport Cost (CT): 1 Trousers 8 25 6%
m n T 2 Shirt 8 25 3%
CT  m * T * ctf  ctv *  dist j *  Qijt (7) 3 Dress 40 120 20%
j 1 i 1 t 1 4 Denim 13 40 10%
Which is the cost for delivering products from the central 5 Denim
Trousers 15 50 15%
warehouse to the stores. We are supposing that each store has 6 Cotton
Trousers 8 25 2%
a dedicated delivery in each time range and deliveries to 7 Jacket
Cardigan 25 70 7%
multiple stores are not possible. 8 Necklace 20 60 20%
9 Handbag 30 80 10%
 Holding Cost (CH): 10 Foulard 5 15 1%
n n T Invijt
C H  m * chf   chv,i * cu i *  (8)
Table 5 stores parameters
i 1 i 1 t 1 t range
j 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Which is the cost for holding products in the stores and also
evaluate depreciation over time. dist
40 50 55 70 60 450 480 760 800 800
[Km]
Then, the objective function of this problem is the
maximisation of the Profit, defined as:
max P(Qijt ) (9)
The sales forecasts for the 4 different periods are reported in
 max{ R  C S  C P  CT  C H } Table 7, while Table 6 and Table 8 show respectively the set
Qijt q  Z  parameters for the Bees and Tabu-Bees Algorithms and all
the other experimental parameters. Basic Bees parameters are
Subject to the Budget (B) Constraint: set according to (Yuce, et al., 2014).

CP  B (10) Table 6 Parameters of the Bees and Tabu-Bees

Algorithms for the replenishment problem
It was assumed that the Budget allowed to buy product from Parameter Symbol Value
clothing manufacturers is fixed before every selling season. Nr. Scout Bees n 100
Nr. Elite patches e 2
Nr. Best patches b 5
6. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS Nr recruited bees for elite patches ne 30
The experimental analysis has been conducted on the real Nr recruited bees for best patches nb 15
case of an Italian Fashion Company, which works in the Neighbourhood size ngh 3
national territory with hundreds of franchising and direct Nr. of iterations itr 500
operated mono-brand stores and just a single central Nr. of iterations before including a point n_tabu 5
warehouse. The aim of the presented work is to demonstrate in the Tabu List
the methodology and proof of concept. Hence, in the first Nr. of random points generated for r 100
instance and due to lack of new seasonal data, the algorithm replacing Tabu points
results were experimented and compared with the available
Figure 1 shows the average result, i.e. the profit, for the
historic data rather than new cases.
different configuration related to the number of iterations of
In this study 10 selected clothing items (n=10 – Table 4) and
the algorithm. The percentage in the graphs represent the
10 stores (m=10 – Table 5) were considered. It was assumed
improvement of the Tabu-Bees compared to the basic bees
that sales forecasts for the analysed selling season are equal
algorithm. It is clear from the graphs that the new proposed
to the historical sales data. In particular, these data were
model always presents an average of 10% improved results
collected over a time range of 5 months (140 days)
since it allows to overcome local minima and reach better
corresponding to the whole Fall/Winter season (from October
results in a lower number of iterations.
to February), divided into four different periods (t=4):
7. CONLCUSIONS AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES
t1) Early Season (from day 0 to day 42);
t2) Christmas Time (from day 43 to day 85); A new version of the Bees Algorithm, which uses Tabu-
t3) Early Sales (from day 86 to day 114); Search principles, has been proposed to solve the crucial
t4) Late Sales (from day 115 to day140). problem of the replenishment for a Fashion Retail company
with multi-product, multi-store and fixed period
We considered different configurations by varying the configuration. This more responsive research method allows
number of items and stores (i,j) from 1 to 10 and keeping the the algorithm to overcome local minima and to reach on
average 10% better results than the basic model.

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June 28-30, 2016. Troyes, France Giada Martino et al. / IFAC-PapersOnLine 49-12 (2016) 1685–1690 1689

Further steps of this work will improve the problem
formulation through:
 Introduction of the dependence between sales and
inventory amount. Due to the highly customer’s
Table 7 Sales forecasts
impulsive purchasing behaviour towards fashion items,
sales will grow with availability in the stores;
 Remove the fixed period policy and introduce the time
range as an optimisation variable.

fijt
t1 t2
i
j 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 0 31 3 13 13 4 4 9 13 18 8 21 7 13 13 17 4 16 16 25
2 0 14 4 15 15 4 6 0 2 6 4 7 1 13 10 15 1 2 1 6
3 13 26 9 12 12 8 17 14 4 14 13 16 17 13 13 4 44 13 4 14 Table 8 Other experimental
4 0 23 4 5 5 4 3 2 1 9 6 3 5 0 6 2 4 3 3 3 parameters
5 13 21 4 13 13 21 13 0 4 10 12 18 4 0 0 10 6 0 7 4 Description Symbol Value
6 13 8 2 17 17 4 0 0 3 6 4 8 4 0 11 19 1 2 3 7 Budget B 100000 €
7 13 3 5 3 3 0 4 3 1 3 2 4 2 0 1 2 1 0 2 1
0 1 4 8 8 0 4 0 7 9 0 8 3 12 12 13 0 2 5 7 Var. transp. 0,05
8 ctv
9 0 10 1 3 3 4 5 0 2 8 0 1 2 6 6 8 13 0 2 4 cost [€/pcs*Km]
10 0 8 4 7 7 0 3 0 1 5 13 4 2 5 5 0 0 0 2 3 Fixed ctf 5 [€/del.]
t3 t4 transp. cost
1 11 15 5 0 2 4 3 16 14 26 0 31 3 13 13 4 4 9 13 18 Fixed
chf 5 [€]
2 44 25 46 0 50 44 0 33 34 34 0 14 4 15 15 4 6 0 2 6 holding cost
3 21 5 11 50 8 19 14 8 3 11 13 26 9 12 12 8 17 14 4 14 Stock-Out cs 1%
4 3 4 7 0 4 2 1 2 2 5 0 23 4 5 5 4 3 2 1 9 cost
5 8 11 1 38 4 8 0 5 3 3 13 21 4 13 13 21 13 0 4 10 Forecast
unc 0,2
6 7 6 7 0 1 10 8 0 3 3 13 8 2 17 17 4 0 0 3 6 uncertainty
7 7 0 5 0 0 0 3 0 1 3 13 3 5 3 3 0 4 3 1 3
8 7 2 6 0 6 10 0 5 13 5 0 1 4 8 8 0 4 0 7 9
9 4 6 5 0 1 2 1 0 0 2 0 10 1 3 3 4 5 0 2 8
10 4 5 6 0 1 2 1 3 4 3 0 8 4 7 7 0 3 0 1 5

Fig. 1 Comparison between basic bees and Tabu-Bees results: Profit value for 6 different configurations of items and stores

Adeinat, H. & Ventura, J. A., 2015. Determining the

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