Random Demand Satisfaction in Unreliable Production–Inventory–Customer Systems

A method for calculating the probability of customer demand satisfaction in production–inventory–customer systems with Markovian machines, finite finished goods buffers, and random demand is developed. Using this method, the degradation of this probability as a function of demand variability is quantified. In addition, it is shown by examples that the probability of customer demand satisfaction depends primarily on the coefficient of variation, rather than on the complete distribution, of the demand.