Control Policies for a Markov Queueing-Inventory System with Two Demand Classes

This paper considers an (s, Q) Markov queuing-inventory system with two classes of customers, ordinary and priority customers. As and when the on-hand inventory drops to the safety level s, arrival ordinary customers receive service at probability p. Firstly, the inventory level state transitions equation is set up. The steady-state probability distribution and the system’s performance measures which are used for the inventory control are derived. Next, a long-run average inventory cost function is established. An improved genetic algorithm for the optimum control policies is developed. Finally, the optimal inventory control polices and the sensitivities are investigated through the numerical experiments.