Inventory control system for intermittent items with perishability

Perishable items, with a limited lifespan and a known expiration date, are found in a variety of industrial settings. From the food to the pharmaceutical industries, the supply chains specialize their inventory control systems to handle the added complexity. These efforts are enhanced when the items present also an intermittent consumption, characterized by frequent periods without demand mixed to highly variable positive demand events. In this paper, a novel periodic inventory control system aims at bridging the gap between these two product features, managing intermittent items with expiration dates. The proposed system performs a combinatorial analysis evaluating all the demand scenarios before and after an expiration date to measure the expected fill rate. An optimization algorithm then sets the order quantity, using mathematical properties of the system to define efficient search boundaries.