Inventory management permeates decision-making in countless firms
and has been extensively studied in the academic and corporate spheres
(Rosa et al. 2010). The key questions – usually influenced by a variety of
circumstances – which inventory management seeks to answer are: when
to order, how much to order and how much stock to keep as safety stock
(Namit and Chen 1999; Silva 2009). According to Wanke (2011a), inventory
management involves a set of decisions that aim at matching existing
demand with the supply of products and materials over space and time
in order to achieve specified cost and service level objectives, observing
product, operation, and demand characteristics.