An (s, S) Inventory Optimization Problem: A Case Study for a Hospital

Inventory management is one essential lever to use the resources efficiently. However, managing inventories in hospitals is a challenging task because of the several issues: a high service level of medical supplies is required under the unpredictable demand, medical products constitute a significant portion of the overall costs, and the management of these supplies requires considerable effort to check the levels to track usage and to distribute them. Therefore, it is pertinence to apply operations research tools to cope with the managerial issues of the hospital inventory system. In this chapter, the authors implement an (s, S) inventory model by using simulation in a case study of a hospital in Izmir, Turkey. They aim to analyze the unpredictable nature of demand of medical supplies in this hospital and its implications on the developed inventory policy.