In many inventory management systems, some kind of substitution flexibility exists, meaning that a substitute or more flexible item can be used (at an additional cost) when the preferred product stocks out. Through the use of substitution flexibility, we can take advantage of the risk pooling...

Within the operations management literature, the field of healthcare operations management provides one of the most intensively researched areas of the past two decades. Healthcare systems (like many other service systems) tend to exhibit characteristics which complicate the direct application...