1913-2013: The EOQ theory and next steps towards sustainability

The paper is divided in two parts. Firstly, we discuss the evolution of the lot sizing theory during one hundred years of history, starting from the basic model developed by Harris in 1913, up to today. After Harris’ work in fact, several researchers added new conditions attempting to reflect real cases as well as possible. The evolution of the EOQ theory strongly reflects the evolution of the last century industrial systems. The second part of the paper is concerned with the discussion of a “Sustainable Inventory Management Framework”, identifying the associated sub-problems, the associated decision variables, and the sources of sustainable achievement. Two main factors were identified as being significant in turning a benefit in terms of sustainability: the first is linked with the in-bound logistics area in which material transportation and waste act as a major role to address system environmental sustainability, the second is linked with the social impact of manual material handling activities performed inside the plant (in-house logistics).