Controlling imperfect efficiency of live deteriorating products within a four-layer supply chain management

Live products have some unique features which are different from the conventional products. Because of that, managing live products, especially imperfect efficiency management, is the most important decision. Imperfect efficiency control of live products has not received sufficient attention, a major research gap in deteriorating products. Live products, such as chicken and pork, are living creatures that grow during a certain cycle. That cycle can be customized within a certain time to reduce cost with a time cap. This implies that quality assurance for live products is essential even when controlling imperfect efficiency. However, live deteriorating products lose their usefulness over time, which is frequently an important factor in decision-making. This study investigates a four-layer supply chain’s interconnected live product control scheme through breeding, processing, testing, and buyer operations. The processor supplies a fixed number of evenly sized bunches of high-quality managed stock to the buyer, influencing the time-dependent demand for the high-quality processed stock. Although most fully developed products are imperfect, they are thoroughly tested, followed by realistic implementations. Consequently, the key purpose of this work is to minimize the overall expense of the supply chain in terms of the number of replenishments of high quality during the planning horizon and cycle time. Furthermore, an algorithmic rule is established for optimality, and a numerical illustration is discussed to explain the results. The impacts of key parameters are analyzed using sensitivity analysis, and the important managerial implications are identified, enabling the supply chain to minimize the overall expense.