Distributionally robust multistage inventory models with moment constraints

Abstract

In this paper, we consider a minimax approach to managing an inventory under distributional uncertainty. In particular, we study the associated multistage distributionally robust optimization problem, when only the mean, variance, and distribution support are known for the demand at each stage. It is known that if the policy maker is allowed to recompute her policy choice after each stage (i.e. dynamic formulation), thus taking prior realizations of demand into consideration when performing the relevant minimax calculations at later stages, a basestock policy is optimal. In contrast, if the policy maker is not allowed to recompute her policy after each stage (i.e. static formulation), far less is known. If these two formulations have a common optimal policy, i.e. the policy maker would be content with the given policy whether or not she has the power to recompute after each stage, we say that the policy is time consistent, and the problem is weakly time consistent. If every optimal policy for the static formulation is time consistent, we say that the problem is strongly time consistent. In this paper, we give sufficient conditions for weak and strong time consistency. We also provide several examples demonstrating that the problem is not time consistent in general. Furthermore, these examples show that the question of time consistency can be quite subtle in this setting. In particular, we show that: (i) the problem can fail to be weakly time consistent, (ii) the problem can be weakly but not strongly time consistent, and (iii) the problem can be strongly time consistent even if the two formulations

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