Deterministic Inventory Lot Size Models--A General Root Law

Lineu C. Barbosa and Moshe Friedman
Additional contact information
Lineu C. Barbosa: IBM Research Laboratory, San Jose
Moshe Friedman: IBM Research Laboratory, San Jose

Management Science, 1978, vol. 24, issue 8, 819-826

Abstract: The article presents a continuous time inventory model with known time varying demand. The relevant costs are the carrying and replenishment costs; backlogs are prohibited, replenishments are instantaneous, and the planning horizon is finite and known, The problem is to find the optimal schedule of replenishments, i.e., their number and the schedule of time intervals between consecutive orders. A complete solution is given for demand functions of the type b(t) = kt r , k > 0, r > -2, where t stands for time, and the asymptotic properties of the solution when the planning horizon tends to infinity are investigated. For r = 0 the solution reduces to the results obtained by Carr and Howe for the constant demand case with finite horizons, and to the classical "square root law" for infinite horizons. For r = 1 it yields the "cubic root law" given by Resh, Friedman, and Barbosa for time proportional demand rate. More generally, for r integer the solution can be expressed in an "(r + 2) root law."

Date: 1978
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.24.8.819 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:24:y:1978:i:8:p:819-826

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Management Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().