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Inventory Control and Management

Article  in  Journal of the Operational Research Society · March 1993

DOI: 10.2307/2584204

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 Journal of the Operational Research Society Vol. 44, No.3

mathematicians in research programmes for improving the mathematical modelling of waste

management programmes; (3) specialists in mathematical programming.
ALAN J. MAYNE

lmplementable Marketing Research

ALAN MERCER
Prentice-Hall, Heme! Hempstead, 1991. xiv + 165 pp. £16.95
ISBN 0 13 457532 6
lmp!ementable Marketing Research is a book which the writer suggests is aimed at all managers
who might wish to carry out analytical studies of markets or install systems in marketing
organizations. Emphasis is heavily on implementation with a case study approach illustrating the
applications of a wide range of techniques and models. The book has eight chapters arranged as
follows.
Chapter 1 sets the scene with a discussion on the roles of marketing, pressures of markets and
models, and their use in handling complexity. The chapter utilizes a classic case study to illustrate
this modelling approach related to market share in the potato crisp production industry.
Chapter 2 introduces a mathematical model for market shares and parameter estimation and
shows clearly the capacity to compare predictions with reality, emphasizing the practicality of the
technique.
Chapter 3 utilizes a different mathematical model but with, as in Chapter 2, easily accessible
data, to examine the fully coated countline biscuit market. It includes, as does the whole book, a
very good analysis of existing theory and research in this area.
Chapter 4 deals with simulations, again relying on classic-case data to demonstrate their use and
limitations.
Chapter 5: this is a good chapter dealing with promotions. Comparisons of public forecasts with
actual values of three types of promotions are given in respect of retailer purchase of promoted
cosmetics, and analysis of store data dealing with promotions.
Chapter 6: this chapter deals with experiments in relation to the salesforce and pricing. It is
especially useful on pricing and a practical application of the experimental approach to advertising
media is illustrated in a case study on cigarettes.
Chapter 7: this chapter is entitled retailing, but is packed with interesting applications; site
location, effects of product range on electrical goods and a thorough consideration of space
elasticities and the consequences on profit of improved shelf space in supermarkets.
Finally, Chapter 8 deals with industrial markets with a useful section on competitive pricing
(bidding) and its related complexities.
The author advises that he wished to produce neither a textbook or a handbook, but more a
monograph occupying the grey area between. I believe he has succeeded; the book has some very
good references and the literature reviews throughout enhance the content. I am doubtful about
the understanding by all managers and suspect that a fairly sophisticated mathematical under-
standing would be a prerequisite for the reader. Whilst I agree with the 'Implementable' element
of the title, the book works well on the case study approach. I would, however, have preferred
greater reference to integrated marketing theory. I do think that the book draws together the
various models and techniques effectively and provides a valuable one-step reference in this respect.
LUIZ MOUTINHO

Inventory Control and Management

C. D. J. WATERS
Wiley, Chichester, 1992. xv + 364 pp. £24.95
ISBN 0 471 93081 4
This well-structured, comprehensive text is the latest of a number written by Waters, primarily for
the operations management market.

316

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 Book Selection

The book aims to provide those with little or no experience of scientific inventory control with
a broad, not overly mathematical, introduction to many of the stock systems in current use. In the
main, it achieves this objective very successfully.
The material is collected together in three distinct sections, the first of which serves as a general,
non-technical backdrop to the subject. This is effectively the foundation for the two much
larger sections, concerned, respectively with independent demand inventory systems (covering in
particular, the EOQ model and its refinements- particularly allowing for known and probabilistic
demand patterns etc) and dependent demand systems (exemplified by MRP and JIT systems
etc).
The treatment throughout is clear and matter-of fact. Sometimes, despite the author's best
intentions, the formulae involved are fairly demanding, but this is offset to a large extent by an
overall standard of presentation which is extremely high (as anyone familiar with Waters' work is
now accustomed to expect).
Apart from some minor niggles regarding the choice of the notation and occasional repetitive-
ness, my only real disappointment is that the book features no substantive case type illustrations.
These could have proven useful for helping put much of the theory described into a more practical
context. Appropriate cases might also have made more of the role of computers in inventory
management, which is not over-stressed here.
Despite these last remarks, I must be honest and admit that I regard the review copy of this book
as a very worthwhile addition to my management science collection. I am sure that many of you
will find the same too.
JIM FREEMAN

Multicriteria Decision-aid
PHILLIPE VINCKE
Wiley, Chichester, 1992. xiii + 154 pp. £29.95
ISBN 0 471 93184 5
Finally, a book giving a thorough representation of the so-called French or European approach to
the multicriteria decision analysis, defined by the author as Multicriteria Decision Aid (MCDA).
There are substantial reasons for this distinction, the principal one being the will to underline a 'soft'
decision-aid point of view versus a 'hard' decision making one.
The book has an obvious teaching origin and appears to be written to support academic courses
whose main topic is the multicriteria methodology, or for people that are interested in the subject
for the first time and want a basic and strong introduction to the area.
The book is divided into seven chapters. The organization of the book gives an idea of the
author's approach to the subject. Three chapters are dedicated to the principal problems that are
present when a multicriteria model of a problem situation has to be built. The first chapter
introduces the problem of defining the set of actions on which the multicriteria evaluation will be
applied. This is a question generally underestimated in the current theory. Even if the book does
not provide a complete operational answer it gives a good idea of what happens in real-life
applications. The second chapter is dedicated to preference modelling, a basic subject in this area,
again generally neglected. People teaching MCDA will find very helpful the presentation of the
different preference structures and their consequences on building different orders on the set of
actions. The third chapter introduces all the preliminary concepts necessary for a multicriteria
model using any of the three operational approaches to the problem. Again people teaching these
arguments will find an excellent presentation of all the necessary concepts.
The next three chapters present the three principal operational approaches in solving a multi-
criteria problem: multiattribute utility theory, outranking methods and interactive methods. It is
interesting to notice that each of these approaches is presented in such a way to allow the reader
to understand what are the suitable situations in which to use these approaches and what are the
different conclusions to which they lead. This is exactly in the spirit of the book as I understood
it: give an account of the fundamentals of MCDA instead of a mathematical theory of multicriteria
decision making.
317

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