Inventory theory is the sub-specialty within operations research

Operations research

Operations research is an interdisciplinary mathematical science that focuses on the effective use of technology by organizations...

 that is concerned with the design of production/inventory systems to minimize costs. It studies the decisions faced by firms and the military in connection with manufacturing, warehousing, supply chains, spare part allocation and so on; it provides the mathematical foundation for logistics

Logistics

Logistics is the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of destination in order to meet the requirements of customers or corporations. Logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging, and...

.

See also

• Economic order quantity
  Economic order quantity
  Economic order quantity is the level of inventory that minimizes total inventory holding costs and ordering costs. It is one of the oldest classical production scheduling models. The framework used to determine this order quantity is also known as Wilson EOQ Model or Wilson Formula. The model was...
  
   or Wilson EOQ model
• Dynamic lot size model
  Dynamic lot size model
  In inventory theory the Dynamic lot size model is a generalization of the economic order quantity model that takes into account that demand for the product varies over time. The model was introduced by H.M. Wagner and T.H...
  
   or Wagner-Whitin model
• Economic Lot Scheduling Problem
  Economic Lot Scheduling Problem
  The Economic Lot Scheduling Problem is a problem in Operations management that has been studied by a large number of researchers for over 50 years...
  
  
• Inventory control problem
  Inventory control problem
  The inventory control problem is the problem faced by a firm that must decide how much to order in each time period to meet demand for its products. The problem can be modeled using mathematical techniques of optimal control, dynamic programming and network optimization. The study of such models...
  
  
• Newsvendor problem
• Safety stock
  Safety stock
  Safety stock is a term used by logisticians to describe a level of extra stock that is maintained to mitigate risk of stockouts due to uncertainties in supply and demand. Adequate safety stock levels permit business operations to proceed according to their plans...
  
  

Textbooks

Current university courses in inventory theory typically use one or more of the following textbooks:

• Axsaeter, Sven. Inventory Control. Norwell, MA: Kluwer, 2000. ISBN 0387332502
• Porteus, Evan L. Foundations of Stochastic Inventory Theory. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002. ISBN 0804743991
• Silver, Edward A., David F. Pyke, and Rein Peterson. Inventory Management and Production Planning and Scheduling, 3rd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 1998. ISBN 0471119474
• Simchi-Levi, David, Xin Chen, and Julien Bramel. The Logic of Logistics: Theory, Algorithms, and Applications for Logistics Management, 2nd ed. New York: Springer Verlag, 2004. ISBN 0387221999
• Tempelmeier, Horst. Inventory Management in Supply Networks, 3rd. Edition, Norderstedt (Books on Demand) 2011, ISBN 3-8423-4677-8
• Zipkin, Paul H. Foundations of Inventory Management. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2000. ISBN 0256113793