IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/annopr/v317y2022i1d10.1007_s10479-016-2157-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inventory turns and finite-horizon Little’s Laws

Author

Listed:
  • Benjamin Melamed

    (Rutgers University)

  • Rudolf Leuschner

    (Rutgers University)

  • Weiwei Chen

    (Rutgers University)

  • Dale S. Rogers

    (Carey School of Business, Arizona State University)

  • Min Cao

    (Rutgers University)

Abstract

Over the past 30 years managers have increasingly focused on improving inventory management both within their own firms and across the supply chain. To this end, inventory turns metrics have been adopted as a popular tool for measuring flow velocity through the inventory and the efficiency of inventory-related asset utilization. There are multiple computational methods thereof currently used by practitioners, but each has some flaws. In particular, consensus is lacking as to (1) how to measure inventory flow and (2) how to measure the inventory level. Clearly, high-quality accounting information is essential for an accurate assessment of all inventory performance metrics. Unfortunately, when comparing efficiencies across firms or diagnosing and correcting intra-firm inefficiencies, choices of specific accounting rules and distortions between fair market values and corresponding accounting book values can lead to potentially misleading results. This paper presents finite-horizon versions of Little’s Law and elucidates their connection to inventory turns and restricted sojourn times in inventory, defined as the portion of the full sojourn time that falls within a prescribed time period. In particular, it explains when the reciprocal of sample inventory turns coincides with the sample average of restricted sojourn times. As such, the paper provides a unified prescriptive model for correctly relating inventory turns to sojourn times through an inventory system, thereby facilitating more accurate intra-firm and cross-firm comparisons.

Suggested Citation

  • Benjamin Melamed & Rudolf Leuschner & Weiwei Chen & Dale S. Rogers & Min Cao, 2022. "Inventory turns and finite-horizon Little’s Laws," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 317(1), pages 129-146, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:annopr:v:317:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s10479-016-2157-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10479-016-2157-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10479-016-2157-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10479-016-2157-9?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kolias, Georgios D. & Dimelis, Sophia P. & Filios, Vasilios P., 2011. "An empirical analysis of inventory turnover behaviour in Greek retail sector: 2000-2005," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(1), pages 143-153, September.
    2. Alan S. Blinder & Louis J. Maccini, 1991. "Taking Stock: A Critical Assessment of Recent Research on Inventories," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 73-96, Winter.
    3. Vishal Gaur & Marshall L. Fisher & Ananth Raman, 2005. "An Econometric Analysis of Inventory Turnover Performance in Retail Services," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(2), pages 181-194, February.
    4. Yasin Alan & George P. Gao & Vishal Gaur, 2014. "Does Inventory Productivity Predict Future Stock Returns? A Retailing Industry Perspective," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(10), pages 2416-2434, November.
    5. Demeter, Krisztina & Matyusz, Zsolt, 2011. "The impact of lean practices on inventory turnover," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(1), pages 154-163, September.
    6. Kevin B. Hendricks & Vinod R. Singhal, 1997. "Does Implementing an Effective TQM Program Actually Improve Operating Performance? Empirical Evidence from Firms That Have Won Quality Awards," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(9), pages 1258-1274, September.
    7. Konstantopoulos, Takis & Zazanis, Michael & De Veciana, Gustavo, 1996. "Conservation laws and reflection mappings with an application to multiclass mean value analysis for stochastic fluid queues," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 139-146, December.
    8. Zhaohui Zeng, Amy & Hayya, Jack C., 1999. "The performance of two popular service measures on management effectiveness in inventory control," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 147-158, January.
    9. Junmin Shi & Michael Katehakis & Benjamin Melamed, 2013. "Martingale methods for pricing inventory penalties under continuous replenishment and compound renewal demands," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 208(1), pages 593-612, September.
    10. Wiendahl, Hans-Peter & Breithaupt, Jan-Wilhelm, 2000. "Automatic production control applying control theory," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 33-46, January.
    11. Jim (Junmin) Shi & Michael N. Katehakis & Benjamin Melamed & Yusen Xia, 2014. "Production-Inventory Systems with Lost Sales and Compound Poisson Demands," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 62(5), pages 1048-1063, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Kroes, James R. & Manikas, Andrew S. & Gattiker, Thomas F., 2018. "Operational leanness and retail firm performance since 1980," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 262-274.
    2. Maican, Florin & Orth, Matilda, 2018. "Inventory Behavior, Demand, and Productivity in Retail," CEPR Discussion Papers 13308, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Maican, Florin & Orth, Matilda, 2021. "Determinants of economies of scope in retail," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    4. Robb, David J. & Liu, Fei & Lai, Richard & Ren, Z. Justin, 2012. "Inventory in mainland China: Historical, industry, and geographic perspectives," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(1), pages 440-450.
    5. Bendig, David & Brettel, Malte & Downar, Benedikt, 2018. "Inventory component volatility and its relation to returns," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 37-49.
    6. Manikas, Andrew S. & Patel, Pankaj C., 2016. "Managing sales surprise: The role of operational slack and volume flexibility," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 101-116.
    7. Baron, Opher & Callen, Jeffrey L. & Segal, Dan, 2023. "Does the bullwhip matter economically? A cross-sectional firm-level analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    8. Yonit Barron & David Perry & Wolfgang Stadje, 2016. "A make-to-stock production/inventory model with MAP arrivals and phase-type demands," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 241(1), pages 373-409, June.
    9. Lai, Richard, 2007. "Inventory and the Shape of the Earth," MPRA Paper 4754, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Christian Terwiesch & Marcelo Olivares & Bradley R. Staats & Vishal Gaur, 2020. "OM Forum—A Review of Empirical Operations Management over the Last Two Decades," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 22(4), pages 656-668, July.
    11. Feng, Cong & Fay, Scott, 2021. "Chief stores officer and retailer performance," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    12. Gérard P. Cachon & Taylor Randall & Glen M. Schmidt, 2007. "In Search of the Bullwhip Effect," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 9(4), pages 457-479, April.
    13. Woon Sau Leung & Jiong Sun, 2021. "Policy Uncertainty and Customer Concentration," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(5), pages 1517-1542, May.
    14. Achintya Ray, 2018. "Are Inventories Accretive? Lessons from Inventory and Earnings Relationship in the U.S. Capital Goods Sector," Accounting and Finance Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 7(1), pages 1-40, February.
    15. Feng, Cong & Xiang, Kexin, 2023. "Structural power of female executives and retailer profitability: A contingent resource-based perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    16. Kolias, Georgios D. & Dimelis, Sophia P. & Filios, Vasilios P., 2011. "An empirical analysis of inventory turnover behaviour in Greek retail sector: 2000-2005," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(1), pages 143-153, September.
    17. Folinas, Dimitris & Shen, Chia-Yi, 2014. "Exploring Links among Inventory and Financial Performance in the Agricultural Machinery," International Journal of Food and Agricultural Economics (IJFAEC), Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Department of Economics and Finance, vol. 2(4), pages 1-12, October.
    18. Iny Hwang & Taejin Jung & Woo‐Jong Lee & Daniel G. Yang, 2021. "Asymmetric Inventory Management and the Direction of Sales Changes†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 676-706, March.
    19. Onno Boxma & David Perry & Wolfgang Stadje & Shelley Zacks, 2022. "A compound Poisson EOQ model for perishable items with intermittent high and low demand periods," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 317(2), pages 439-459, October.
    20. Saravanan Kesavan & Tarun Kushwaha & Vishal Gaur, 2016. "Do High and Low Inventory Turnover Retailers Respond Differently to Demand Shocks?," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 18(2), pages 198-215, May.

    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:spr:annopr:v:317:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s10479-016-2157-9. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.