Impulsive control in management: Prospects and applications

An outline of impulsive control and its applications in management is reviewed. Conditions for optimal impulsive controls when the dynamic process is given by a stochastic differential equation with Wiener and jump processes are given. Applications to inventory control, capacity expansion, vehicle dispatching, maintenance-replacement-inspection, and pricing problems are formulated, and optimality conditions found. Although there are many other applications that can be outlined, these provide some motivation for further study in this emerging field.This work was supported by the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management, Brussels, Belgium.