Inventory Modelling for a Manufacturer of Sweets : An Evaluation of an Adjusted Compund Renewal Approach for B-Items With A Relative Short Production Lead Time

In this paper we are especially interested how to optimize the production/inventory control for a manufacturer of sweets, under the following circumstances: short production lead times in combination with an intermittent demand pattern for the so-called B-taste items. As for A-taste items a compound renewal approach appeared appropriate to control inventory/production, we formulated and tested an adjusted compound renewal approach for B-taste items, because a certain condition was not satisfied for those items. For several experiments where the condition was not satisfied and the adjusted approach was compared with the unadjusted one, it then appears that the difference in performance was small. So the first two moments with the compound renewal model appear to be more robust than the restriction given in the literature.