A simple approximation for a multistage capacitated production‐inventory system
针对产能有限、需求多变的多阶段生产库存系统，提出一种简单近似方法，通过指数和近似层级库存分布，快速找到近似最优库存水平，平均误差仅1.9%。
We develop a simple approximation for multistage production-inventory systems with limited production capacity and variable demands. Each production stage follows a base-stock policy for echelon inventory, constrained by production capacity and the availability of upstream inventory. Our objective is to find base-stock levels that approximately minimize holding and backorder costs. The key step in our procedure approximates the distribution of echelon inventory by a sum of exponentials; the parameters of the exponentials are chosen to match asymptotically exact expressions. The computational requirements of the method are minimal. In a test bed of 72 problems, each with five production stages, the average relative error for our approximate optimization procedure is 1.9%. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.