Numerical analysis of (s, S) inventory systems with repeated attempts

Abstract

This paper deals with a continuous review (s, S) inventory system where arriving demands finding the system out of stock, leave the service area and repeat their request after some random time. This assumption introduces a natural alternative to classical approaches based either on lost demand models or on backlogged models. The stochastic model formulation is based on a bidimensional Markov process which is numerically solved to investigate the essential operating characteristics of the system. An optimal design problem is also considered.