Foundations of Stochastic Inventory Theory

In 1958, Stanford University Press published Studies in the Mathematical Theory of Inventory and Production (edited by Kenneth J. Arrow, Samuel Karlin, and Herbert Scarf), which became the pioneering road map for the next forty years of research in this area. One of the outgrowths of this research was development of the field of supply-chain management, which deals with the ways organizations can achieve competitive advantage by coordinating the activities involved in creating products―including designing, procuring, transforming, moving, storing, selling, providing after-sales service, and recycling. Following in this tradition, Foundations of Stochastic Inventory Theory has a dual purpose, serving as an advanced textbook designed to prepare doctoral students to do research on the mathematical foundations of inventory theory and as a reference work for those already engaged in such research.