ABSTRACT
Inventory management can be concisely captured in the following policy, of sorts: “Before you run out, get more.”* Though indeed concise, the statement captures the essence of the basic problem of inventory management, and immediately begs for an answer to two questions-“How long before you run out (i.e., when)?” and “How much more do you get?” Thus, managing inventory boils down to answering those two questions, “when?” and “how much?”
