Economic order quantity

Economic order quantity (EOQ), also known as financial purchase quantity or economic buying quantity, is the order quantity that minimizes the total holding costs and ordering costs in inventory management. It is one of the oldest classical production scheduling models. The model was developed by Ford W. Harris in 1913, but the consultant R. H. Wilson applied it extensively, and he and K. Andler are given credit for their in-depth analysis. The EOQ indicates the optimal number of units to order to minimize the total cost associated with the purchase, delivery, and storage of a product. EOQ applies only when demand for a product is constant over a period of time (such as a year) and each new order is delivered in full when inventory reaches zero. There is a fixed cost for each order placed, regardless of the quantity of items ordered; an order is assumed to contain only one type of inventory item. There is also a cost for each unit held in storage, commonly known as holding cost, sometimes expressed as a percentage of the purchase cost of the item. Although the EOQ formulation is straightforward, factors such as transportation rates and quantity discounts factor into its real-world application. The required parameters to the solution are the total demand for the year, the purchase cost for each item, the fixed cost to place the order for a single item and the storage cost for each item per year. Note that the number of times an order is placed will also affect the total cost, though this number can be determined from the other parameters.