Most books on inventory theory use the item approach to determine stock levels, ignoring the impact of unit cost, echelon location, and hardware indenture. Optimal Inventory Modeling of Systems is the first book to take the system approach to inventory modeling. The result has been dramatic reductions in the resources to operate many systems - fleets of aircraft, ships, telecommunications networks, electric utilities, and the space station.
Although only four chapters and appendices are totally new in this edition, extensive revisions have been made in all chapters, adding numerous worked-out examples. Many new applications have been added including commercial airlines, experience gained during Desert Storm, and adoption of the Windows interface as a standard for personal computer models.