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Autori principali: Feinberg, Eugene, Huang, Jefferson, Kasyanov, Pavlo, O'Neill, Thomas
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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Accesso online:https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.19765
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author Feinberg, Eugene
Huang, Jefferson
Kasyanov, Pavlo
O'Neill, Thomas
author_facet Feinberg, Eugene
Huang, Jefferson
Kasyanov, Pavlo
O'Neill, Thomas
contents This paper implements the Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) algorithm for computing optimal policies for partially observable single-product periodic review inventory control problems with setup costs and backorders. The decision maker does not know the exact inventory level, but can obtain noise-corrupted observations of them. The goal is to maximize the expected total discounted costs incurred over a finite planning horizon. We also investigate the Gaussian version of this problem with normally distributed initial inventories, demands, and observation noise. We show that expected posterior observations of inventory levels, also called mean beliefs, provide sufficient statistics for the Gaussian problem. Moreover, they can be represented in the form of a Markov Decision Processes for an inventory control system with time-dependent holding costs and demands. Thus, for a Gaussian problem, the there exist (s_t,S_t)-optimal policies based on mean beliefs, and this fact explains the structure of the approximately optimal policies computed by DDPG. For the Gaussian case, we also numerically compare the performance of policies derived from DDPG to optimal policies for discretized versions of the original continuous problem.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_19765
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Computing optimal policies for managing inventories with noisy observations
Feinberg, Eugene
Huang, Jefferson
Kasyanov, Pavlo
O'Neill, Thomas
Optimization and Control
This paper implements the Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) algorithm for computing optimal policies for partially observable single-product periodic review inventory control problems with setup costs and backorders. The decision maker does not know the exact inventory level, but can obtain noise-corrupted observations of them. The goal is to maximize the expected total discounted costs incurred over a finite planning horizon. We also investigate the Gaussian version of this problem with normally distributed initial inventories, demands, and observation noise. We show that expected posterior observations of inventory levels, also called mean beliefs, provide sufficient statistics for the Gaussian problem. Moreover, they can be represented in the form of a Markov Decision Processes for an inventory control system with time-dependent holding costs and demands. Thus, for a Gaussian problem, the there exist (s_t,S_t)-optimal policies based on mean beliefs, and this fact explains the structure of the approximately optimal policies computed by DDPG. For the Gaussian case, we also numerically compare the performance of policies derived from DDPG to optimal policies for discretized versions of the original continuous problem.
title Computing optimal policies for managing inventories with noisy observations
topic Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.19765