IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/oropre/v57y2009i6p1360-1366.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

End-of-Period vs. Continuous Accounting of Inventory-Related Costs

Author

Listed:
  • Nils Rudi

    (INSEAD, 77305 Fontainebleau, France)

  • Harry Groenevelt

    (Simon School of Business, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627)

  • Taylor R. Randall

    (David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112)

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of using an end-of-period accounting scheme for inventory-related costs when costs actually accrue in continuous time. Using a simple model, we show that (i) the end-of-period scheme results in higher than optimal order-up-to levels and inventory cost if the cost and demand parameters are unchanged, and (ii) it is possible to replicate both the optimal base-stock level and its cost by selecting the values of the cost or demand parameters judiciously. The cost adjustments often require extreme values, and no systematic cost parameter adjustment scheme is robust. However, we find a systematic adjustment to the demand parameters that serves as a good approximation and is robust. We therefore conclude that end-of-period cost accounting without parameter adjustments is in general inappropriate when costs are incurred continuously, but there are adjustments that can make it work well.

Suggested Citation

  • Nils Rudi & Harry Groenevelt & Taylor R. Randall, 2009. "End-of-Period vs. Continuous Accounting of Inventory-Related Costs," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(6), pages 1360-1366, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:57:y:2009:i:6:p:1360-1366
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.1090.0752
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/opre.1090.0752
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/opre.1090.0752?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Uday S. Rao, 2003. "Properties of the Periodic Review (R, T) Inventory Control Policy for Stationary, Stochastic Demand," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 5(1), pages 37-53, February.
    2. R. Bellman & I. Glicksberg & O. Gross, 1955. "On the Optimal Inventory Equation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 83-104, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Avinadav, Tal & Levy, Priel, 2022. "Value of information in a mobile app supply chain under hidden or known information superiority," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    2. Tal Avinadav, 2016. "Stochastic Periodic-Review Models with Duration- and Quantity-Dependent Inventory Costs: Properties and Approximations," Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research (APJOR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 33(04), pages 1-25, August.
    3. Lagodimos, A.G. & Skouri, K. & Christou, I.T. & Chountalas, P.T., 2018. "The discrete-time EOQ model: Solution and implications," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 266(1), pages 112-121.
    4. Taleizadeh, Ata Allah & Tafakkori, Keivan & Thaichon, Park, 2021. "Resilience toward supply disruptions: A stochastic inventory control model with partial backordering under the base stock policy," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    5. Avinadav, Tal & Henig, Mordecai I., 2015. "Exact accounting of inventory costs in stochastic periodic-review models," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 89-98.
    6. Osman Alp & Alper Şen, 2021. "Delegation of Stocking Decisions Under Asymmetric Demand Information," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 55-69, 1-2.
    7. Konstantaras, I. & Skouri, K. & Lagodimos, A.G., 2019. "EOQ with independent endogenous supply disruptions," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 96-106.
    8. Wang, Qinan & Wan, Guangyu, 2023. "Fixed-interval order-up-to policies and myopic optimal warehouse stock allocation for one-warehouse multiple-retailer systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 309(3), pages 1112-1124.
    9. Tal Avinadav, 2015. "Continuous accounting of inventory costs with Brownian-motion and Poisson demand processes," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 229(1), pages 85-102, June.
    10. Lagodimos, A.G. & Christou, I.T. & Skouri, K., 2012. "Computing globally optimal (s,S,T) inventory policies," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 660-671.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tal Avinadav, 2016. "Stochastic Periodic-Review Models with Duration- and Quantity-Dependent Inventory Costs: Properties and Approximations," Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research (APJOR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 33(04), pages 1-25, August.
    2. Kevin H. Shang & Sean X. Zhou & Geert-Jan van Houtum, 2010. "Improving Supply Chain Performance: Real-Time Demand Information and Flexible Deliveries," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 12(3), pages 430-448, May.
    3. Girardet, Daniel & Spinler, Stefan, 2013. "Surcharge management of kerosene and CO2 costs for airlines under the EU's emission trading," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 25-30.
    4. Girlich, Hans-Joachim, 2003. "Transaction costs in finance and inventory research," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 341-350, January.
    5. Lu Wang & Vidyadhar Kulkarni & Hanqin Zhang, 2023. "Inventory dispensation and restocking in multiclass inventory systems: A decoupling approach," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(2), pages 469-484, February.
    6. Tal Avinadav, 2015. "Continuous accounting of inventory costs with Brownian-motion and Poisson demand processes," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 229(1), pages 85-102, June.
    7. Marcus Ang & Karl Sigman & Jing-Sheng Song & Hanqin Zhang, 2017. "Closed-Form Approximations for Optimal ( r , q ) and ( S , T ) Policies in a Parallel Processing Environment," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 65(5), pages 1414-1428, October.
    8. Prak, Derk & Teunter, Rudolf & Babai, M. Z. & Syntetos, A. A. & Boylan, D, 2018. "Forecasting and Inventory Control with Compound Poisson Demand Using Periodic Demand Data," Research Report 2018010, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    9. Sandun C. Perera & Suresh P. Sethi, 2023. "A survey of stochastic inventory models with fixed costs: Optimality of (s, S) and (s, S)‐type policies—Discrete‐time case," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(1), pages 131-153, January.
    10. Warsing, Donald P. & Wangwatcharakul, Worawut & King, Russell E., 2019. "Computing base-stock levels for a two-stage supply chain with uncertain supply," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 92-109.
    11. Dina Smirnov & Yale T. Herer & Assaf Avrahami, 2021. "Two‐Phase Newsvendor with Optimally Timed Additional Replenishment: Model, Algorithm, Case Study," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(9), pages 2871-2889, September.
    12. Konstantin Kogan & Matan Shnaiderman, 2011. "On Optimality of a Class of Dynamic Myopic Policies for Continuous-Time Replenishment with Periodic Updates," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 191-209, October.
    13. K. Skouri, 2018. "An EOQ model with backlog-dependent demand," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 561-574, July.
    14. Qinan Wang & Sven Axsäter, 2013. "Fixed‐interval joint‐replenishment policies for distribution systems with multiple retailers and stochastic demand," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 60(8), pages 637-651, December.
    15. Taleizadeh, Ata Allah & Tafakkori, Keivan & Thaichon, Park, 2021. "Resilience toward supply disruptions: A stochastic inventory control model with partial backordering under the base stock policy," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    16. Lin, J. & Naim, M.M. & Purvis, L. & Gosling, J., 2017. "The extension and exploitation of the inventory and order based production control system archetype from 1982 to 2015," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 135-152.
    17. Silver, Edward A. & Robb, David J., 2008. "Some insights regarding the optimal reorder period in periodic review inventory systems," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 354-366, March.
    18. Awi Federgruen & Min Wang, 2013. "Monotonicity properties of a class of stochastic inventory systems," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 208(1), pages 155-186, September.
    19. Wang, Qinan, 2013. "A periodic-review inventory control policy for a two-level supply chain with multiple retailers and stochastic demand," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 230(1), pages 53-62.
    20. Riezebos, J. & Gaalman, G.J.C., 2009. "A single-item inventory model for expected inventory order crossovers," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(2), pages 601-609, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:57:y:2009:i:6:p:1360-1366. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.