TY - JOUR

T1 - Characterizing the frequency of orders received by a stockist

AU - Shale, E. A.

AU - Boylan, J. E.

AU - Johnston, F. R.

N1 - Accepted 19/11/2007

PY - 2008

Y1 - 2008

N2 - It is regularly asserted that the frequency of orders received by a stockist can be represented as a Poisson process, but very little corroborative evidence has been published. This paper presents some results supporting the assumption. An adaptation to the standard testing methodology is presented which overcomes the complications arising from the necessity of sampling from time series data. The new approach is applied to a large range of stock-keeping units. Except for the extreme tail of the distribution, which is of little interest for most inventory applications, it is found that the frequency of orders is well represented by a Poisson process.

AB - It is regularly asserted that the frequency of orders received by a stockist can be represented as a Poisson process, but very little corroborative evidence has been published. This paper presents some results supporting the assumption. An adaptation to the standard testing methodology is presented which overcomes the complications arising from the necessity of sampling from time series data. The new approach is applied to a large range of stock-keeping units. Except for the extreme tail of the distribution, which is of little interest for most inventory applications, it is found that the frequency of orders is well represented by a Poisson process.

KW - forecasting

KW - inventory control

KW - intermittent demand

U2 - 10.1093/imaman/dpm038

DO - 10.1093/imaman/dpm038

M3 - Journal article

VL - 19

SP - 137

EP - 143

JO - IMA Journal of Management Mathematics

JF - IMA Journal of Management Mathematics

SN - 1471-678X

IS - 2

ER -