Inventory Model with Partial Backorders

This article presents a deterministic inventory model for situations in which, during the stockout period, a fraction ${\beta}$ of the demand is backordered and the remaining fraction $1-{\beta}$ is lost. By defining a time proportional backorder cost and a fixed penalty cost per unit lost, a convex objective function representing the average annual cost of operating the inventory system is obtained. The optimal operating policy variables are calculated directly. At the extremes ${\beta}\;=\;1$ and ${\beta}\;=\;0$ the model presented reduces to the usual backorders and lost sales case, respectively.