Influence of stock shortage in integrated logistic systems: an under-estimated importance

Performance evaluation of flow systems with such indicators as 'throughput' or 'response time' shows that random delays with high dispersions degrade significantly the performances. Here we focus on the case of stock shortages in integrated logistic systems. These stock shortages create random delays on the component delivery and are the sources of disorders in the behaviour of the systems. We study the squared coefficient of variation of the random variable, a pertinent metric for evaluating the risk on the performances of the involved flows. A way to exhibit the squared coefficient of variation of the duration of the stock shortages is presented. Then, we consider the random variable corresponding to the potential waiting times of all the orders. This latter variable admits a squared coefficient of variation much higher than the former one. Numerical examples raise the reader awareness of the risk of under‐estimating the importance of the stock shortages.