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Old and New Methods for Lost-Sales Inventory Systems

Author

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  • Paul Zipkin

    (Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708)

Abstract

We consider the notoriously difficult discrete-time inventory model with stochastic demands, a constant lead time, and lost sales. We show that the effective state space is a relatively manageable compact set. Then, we test various plausible heuristics. We find that several perform reasonably well, although none is perfect. However, the standard base-stock policy (a direct analogue of the optimal policy for a backlog system) performs badly. We also show that the optimal cost is increasing in the lead time.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Zipkin, 2008. "Old and New Methods for Lost-Sales Inventory Systems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(5), pages 1256-1263, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:56:y:2008:i:5:p:1256-1263
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.1070.0471
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Linwei Xin, 2021. "Technical Note—Understanding the Performance of Capped Base-Stock Policies in Lost-Sales Inventory Models," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 69(1), pages 61-70, January.
    2. Jinzhi Bu & Xiting Gong & Dacheng Yao, 2019. "Technical Note—Constant-Order Policies for Lost-Sales Inventory Models with Random Supply Functions: Asymptotics and Heuristic," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 68(4), pages 1063-1073, July.
    3. Bendre, Abhijit Bhagwan & Nielsen, Lars Relund, 2013. "Inventory control in a lost-sales setting with information about supply lead times," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 324-331.
    4. Bijvank, Marco & Bhulai, Sandjai & Tim Huh, Woonghee, 2015. "Parametric replenishment policies for inventory systems with lost sales and fixed order cost," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 241(2), pages 381-390.
    5. Manuel Cardós & Ester Guijarro & Eugenia Babiloni, 2017. "On the estimation of on-hand stocks for base-stock policies and lost sales systems and its impact on service measures," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(16), pages 4680-4694, August.
    6. Amin Khademi & Burak Eksioglu, 2018. "Spare Parts Inventory Management with Substitution-Dependent Reliability," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 30(3), pages 507-521, August.
    7. Youhua (Frank) Chen & Weili Xue & Jian Yang, 2013. "Technical Note---Optimal Inventory Policy in the Presence of a Long-Term Supplier and a Spot Market," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 61(1), pages 88-97, February.
    8. Paul Zipkin, 2008. "On the Structure of Lost-Sales Inventory Models," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(4), pages 937-944, August.
    9. Lin, X. & Basten, R.J.I. & Kranenburg, A.A. & van Houtum, G.J., 2017. "Condition based spare parts supply," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 240-248.
    10. Johansen, Søren Glud, 2013. "Modified base-stock policies for continuous-review, lost-sales inventory models with Poisson demand and a fixed lead time," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(2), pages 379-384.
    11. Yanyi Xu & Sang-Phil Kim & Arnab Bisi & Maqbool Dada & Suresh Chand, 2018. "Base-Stock Models for Lost Sales: A Markovian Approach," Purdue University Economics Working Papers 1305, Purdue University, Department of Economics.
    12. Xiaoming Li, 2015. "Optimal Policies and Bounds for Stochastic Inventory Systems with Lost Sales," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 359-375, January.
    13. Robert N. Boute & Jan A. Van Mieghem, 2015. "Global Dual Sourcing and Order Smoothing: The Impact of Capacity and Lead Times," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(9), pages 2080-2099, September.
    14. Retsef Levi & Ganesh Janakiraman & Mahesh Nagarajan, 2008. "A 2-Approximation Algorithm for Stochastic Inventory Control Models with Lost Sales," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(2), pages 351-374, May.
    15. Visentin, Andrea & Prestwich, Steven & Rossi, Roberto & Tarim, S. Armagan, 2021. "Computing optimal (R,s,S) policy parameters by a hybrid of branch-and-bound and stochastic dynamic programming," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 294(1), pages 91-99.
    16. Dijkstra, Arjan S. & Van der Heide, Gerlach & Roodbergen, Kees Jan, 2019. "Transshipments of cross-channel returned products," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 70-77.
    17. Transchel, Sandra & Buisman, Marjolein E. & Haijema, Rene, 2022. "Joint assortment and inventory optimization for vertically differentiated products under consumer-driven substitution," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 301(1), pages 163-179.
    18. Bijvank, Marco & Vis, Iris F.A., 2012. "Lost-sales inventory systems with a service level criterion," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 220(3), pages 610-618.
    19. Yonit Barron & Opher Baron, 2020. "The residual time approach for (Q, r) model under perishability, general lead times, and lost sales," Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research (GOR);Nederlands Genootschap voor Besliskunde (NGB), vol. 92(3), pages 601-648, December.
    20. Bijvank, Marco & Vis, Iris F.A., 2011. "Lost-sales inventory theory: A review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 215(1), pages 1-13, November.
    21. Jason Acimovic & Stephen C. Graves, 2017. "Mitigating Spillover in Online Retailing via Replenishment," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 19(3), pages 419-436, July.
    22. van Donselaar, Karel H. & Broekmeulen, Rob A.C.M., 2013. "Determination of safety stocks in a lost sales inventory system with periodic review, positive lead-time, lot-sizing and a target fill rate," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(2), pages 440-448.
    23. Woonghee Tim Huh & Ganesh Janakiraman & John A. Muckstadt & Paat Rusmevichientong, 2009. "An Adaptive Algorithm for Finding the Optimal Base-Stock Policy in Lost Sales Inventory Systems with Censored Demand," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(2), pages 397-416, May.
    24. Boute, Robert N. & Gijsbrechts, Joren & van Jaarsveld, Willem & Vanvuchelen, Nathalie, 2022. "Deep reinforcement learning for inventory control: A roadmap," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 298(2), pages 401-412.
    25. Bijvank, Marco & Johansen, Søren Glud, 2012. "Periodic review lost-sales inventory models with compound Poisson demand and constant lead times of any length," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 220(1), pages 106-114.

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