A Reappraisal of the Square Root Law

In a recent article Maister discusses the role of centralised inventory in a logistics system and provides a proof of the square root law recognised to be useful for this purpose by several authors (Starr and Miller, Brown, and Heskett et al.). However, the previous authors applied the law to describe the distribution of safety stocks whereas Maister attempts to extend it to the case of cycle stocks as well. The present paper re‐examines the law critically and raises some questions regarding its applicability, especially to the case of cycle stocks. Certain pertinent issues are also discussed at the end.