Discrete frequency models for inventory management – an introduction

The paper deals with the problem of devising a periodic replenishment policy when orders must be periodic, but only a given, discrete set of order frequencies can be used. The multi-item, instantaneous replenishment case with known demand is studied. In particular, staggering policies somehow arranging replenishments not to come at the same time instants are considered. The paper is composed of three parts: first, a taxonomy of several versions of the discrete frequency problem is proposed, according to different elements; in the second part, a general mixed integer programming model is proposed which is able to capture the peculiarities of the whole spectrum of this kind of problems; finally, some specific models allowing staggering are considered for them; theoretical results and properties are provided.