Abstract
Managing multi-echelon inventory systems has gained importance over the last decade mainly because integrated control of supply chains consisting of several processing and distribution stages has become feasible through modern information technology. Determination of optimal inventory policy for multi-echelon supply chain is made difficult by the complex interaction between the different levels. In this paper, we investigate performance of five inventory policies (fixed quantity order policy, fixed interval order policy, compromised order policy, lead time-fixed quantity order policy, and mixed order policy) in a multi-echelon supply chain by using a simulation model constructed with AweSim simulation language. The results of the simulation study show that the mixed order policy is the best among five inventory policies in the most test problems except the case when the stockout cost per unit is much higher than the inventory holding and transportation costs per unit.