The premises commonly adopted in inventory management models - adherence of lead-time demand to Normal Distribution, known average and standard deviations, and discrete lead time - are often unrealistic and can lead to considerable distortions in new product inventories, particularly insofar as total costs and service level indicators are concerned. Considering that companies stock new products while simultaneously learning about the characteristics of lead-time demand distribution, this paper proposes the solution to the (Q,r) - order quantity and reorder point - inventory model for uniform demand and lead-time. The premise of Uniform Distribution is defined by two parameters that are more intuitive than mean and standard deviation - maximum and minimum - and it can also be applied when a result shows the same probability of occurring. Therefore, its adoption may be the first practical approach for new product inventory management.
inventory management; new products; (Q,r) inventory model; Uniform Distribution; analysis of management initiatives
