Inventory Management and Risk Pooling - Single stage inventory - The economic lot size model

5 important questions on Inventory Management and Risk Pooling - Single stage inventory - The economic lot size model

What is the economic lot size model?

This is a simple model that illustrates the trade-offs between ordering and storage costs.

What is the goal in the economic lot size model?

The goal is to find the optimal order policy that minimizes annual purchasing and carrying costs, while meeting all demand (that is, without shortages)

What is zero inventory ordering property?

The optimal policy for ordering inventory should be that order are received at the warehouse precisely when the inventory level drops to zero.
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How do we calculate total inventory cost in a cycle of length T?


h = the per-unit, per-time-period holding cost
Q/2 = the average inventory level
T = the length of the cycle

Which two insights does the economic size model provide?

  1. A optimal policy balances inventory holding cost per unit time with setup cost per unit time.
  2. Total inventory cost is insensitive to order quantities; that is, changes in order quantities have a relatively small impact on annual setup costs and inventory holding costs

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