A fuzzy random periodic review system: a technique for real‐life application

This paper presents a technique for the suitable quantification of the available demand information for inventory situations characterised by the limited availability of past demand data. As this lack of information makes it difficult to develop reliable estimates of the demand parameter, with experts preferring to give their estimates in terms of evaluative linguistic expressions, such inventory situations are characterised by the simultaneous presence of fuzziness and randomness. Therefore, this paper focuses on providing the decision‐makers with the means of suitably quantifying this imprecise and uncertain information as a fuzzy random data set. The periodic review system has been utilised in this regard to provide an illustration of the proposed technique. A numerical example has also been provided for this purpose. This paper, therefore, presents a methodology for the implementation of a theoretical fuzzy random inventory model to a real‐life situation.