A mathematical programming-based solution method for the nonstationary inventory problem under correlated demand

Abstract

This paper extends the single-item single-stocking location nonstationary stochastic inventory problem to relax the assumption of independent demand. We present a mathematical programming-based solution method built upon an existing piecewise linear approximation strategy under the receding horizon control framework. Our method can be implemented by leveraging off-the-shelf mixed-integer linear programming solvers. It can tackle demand under various assumptions: the multivariate normal distribution, a collection of time-series processes, and the Martingale Model of Forecast Evolution. We compare against exact solutions obtained via stochastic dynamic programming to demonstrate that our method leads to near-optimal plans.