Comparison between continuous review inventory control systems for perishables with deterministic lifetime and lead time

This paper aims at comparing and verifying the effectiveness of existing (r, Q) inventory systems for perishables with fixed lead time and lifetime. The total inventory operating costs are compared to measure the performance for each policy in order to choose the best one that leads to the lowest cost. We show that, under backordered demand, the (r, Q) policy obtained from [8] deviates on average by less than one percent from the optimal (r, Q) policy and performs better than a previous model developed by Chiu [2] when Q ≥ r. When excess demand are lost, Chiu´s model [2] performs better than the model of [8]. But both models are unsuitable when the ordering cost K increases. Keywords: Perishable products, Inventory control, Continuous review policy.