The newsstand problem: A capacitated multiple-product single-period inventory problem

Abstract

Practically all of the many earlier papers on the newsboy problem consider a single newsboy product with no capacity constraint. This paper presents formulations and solution procedures for handling multiple newsboy-type products under two cases: (A) one resource-capacity constraint; and (B) multiple resource constraints. For case A, we present a necessary extension to the classical Hadley-Whitin result for handling general demand distributions. For case B we present a solution procedure that can efficiently handle the common situation where a very large number of products are involved.