Incremental Discounts
From Supply Chain Management Encyclopedia
In the basic EOQ model the variable cost is constant for orders of all sizes. However, it is common for suppliers to offer price breaks for large orders. This section shows how to extend the EOQ model to incorporate such quantity discounts. Actually, there are two kinds of discounts, incremental and all-units.
Consider the first case: Suppose the purchase price changes at the breakpoint
The variable cost is for any amount up to . For an order larger than , the additional amount over incurs the rate where .
Thus, the total order cost is
where
Alternatively, define (a constant) and (a constant!). Then, the order cost is
This function describes more elaborate economies of scale than the original fixed-plus-linear form. In a production setting, it represents costs that depend on the production quantity in a complex, nonlinear way.
The figure illustrates for the incremental case.
\begin{center} \includegraphics[width=11 cm]{1.eps} \end{center}
Given the revised order cost for the incremental case, the formulation proceeds as in the EOQ model. The holding cost is a bit tricky, however.
In addition to direct handling costs, which occur at rate , there is also a financing cost, which occurs at rate .
Here, is the interest rate, and is the average variable purchase cost. Thus, the total average cost is
( is not differentiable at , so we cannot hope simply to differentiate to obtain the optimal solution. Also, is not convex.)
Observe that
That is, is the smaller of two positive, linear functions that cross at . Therefore,
where
Both and have the form of the EOQ model's cost function. Both are strictly convex and differentiable, and their graphs cross at . Let and be the respective minimizing values of . Also,
Evidently, , so . There remain three possible cases:
\begin{enumerate} \item $q_{0}^{*} <q_{1}^{*} \le BP$ \item $q_{0}^{*} <BP\le q_{1}^{*} $ \item $BP\le q_{0}^{*} <q_{1}^{*} $ \end{enumerate}
In case 1, for ,
so is optimal. In case 3, by a parallel argument, is optimal. Only in case 2 is there any doubt. In that case, calculate both and to determine which one is smaller.
In sum, it is easy to determine an optimal policy: Compute both and using EOQ-like formulas, compare them with to determine which case applies, and if necessary (in case 2) compare their costs.