Paper Title
Predictive Time-Temprature Indicatiors for Monitoring Perishable Inventory

Abstract
Delays and inappropriate storage conditions have negative consequences, as drivers may shut down the refrigeration unit to save fuel costs or may leave doors open during deliveries. Consequently, some perishable products may be damaged by unwarranted temperature variations. Time-temperature-indicator (TTI)-based automatic devices (ADs) provide online information to incoming consumers regarding the expected shelf-life of products to be purchased. We consider the problem of managing an inventory system consisting of perishable products whose quality deteriorates over time under a stochastic environment (e.g., sudden change in storage conditions, heterogeneity of consumers regarding their sensitivity to freshness, shelf-life volatility, etc.). The model incorporates both dynamic pricing and TTI-based ADs for monitoring a perishable inventory system. The results have potential application in competitive markets such as the pharmaceutical and food industries. Among the new scenarios explored in this study are different levels of the following: price-sensitivity; utility variability; expiry prediction error; demand variability; expected shelf-life; variability of shelf-life. It is found that the expected shelf-life and its variance significantly affect expected profits. Applying TTI-based ADs substantially mitigates the negative effect of the variability of shelf-life. Keywords - Cold chain; perishable inventory; dynamic pricing; predicting AD