Accession Number:

ADA071042

Title:

An Analysis of a Single Location Inventory Problem for Two Interchangeable Recoverable Items.

Descriptive Note:

Interim rept.,

Corporate Author:

CORNELL UNIV ITHACA N Y DEPT OF OPERATIONS RESEARCH

Personal Author(s):

• Muckstadt,John A.

Report Date:

1979-04-01

Pagination or Media Count:

41.0

Abstract:

We studied the interchangeabilitysubstitutability problem for two recoverable items that fail at a single location. We assumed the failure processes for each type of item are independent, stationary Poisson processes and that the repair times are exponentially distributed. Furthermore, we assumed that the system is a closed system, that is , no items are added to or deleted from the system. We first considered a discrete-time problem and showed that this problem is a Markovian decision problem. We then showed that for this problem there exist optimal stationary Markov control policies. Next we formulated a continuous time model and showed how to find the optimal stationary Markov control policy using linear programming. Unfortunately, this approach was shown to be impractical for solving most real problems. Consequently, we established and explored some of the properties that we feel an optimal policy should possess. We developed heuristic procedures thatcan be used to find a good policy for managing this class of items.

Descriptors:

• *INVENTORY CONTROL
• OPTIMIZATION
• POLICIES
• DECISION MAKING
• DECISION THEORY
• MARKOV PROCESSES

Subject Categories:

• Statistics and Probability

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE