Technical Paper: The Single‐period Inventory Problem with Uniform Demand

Presents a simple method for determining an optimum ordering policy for the single‐period inventory problem with a set‐up cost of ordering and the uncertain total demand over the period represented by a uniform probability density function, the distribution reflecting the decision maker′s degree of belief that all values of total demand outside two(possibly “soft”) limits are barely credible and that all values within the limits are equally likely. The method is simple to implement and allows easy sensitivity analysis of the results to perturbations in the estimates of the problem parameters. Presents a numerical example to illustrate the essential features of the method.