In a previous post I described how one can implement pricing optimization and inventory control for a fashion retail business via mathematical programming. The mathematical program in the scenario allows the users to plan prices such that both the profit is maximized and the left-over stock is minimized. In this post I now present the corresponding model and its implementation in Python/PuLP.
Exemplary problem description
A pricing manager of a retail business wants to plan prices for the next week while considering both profit and inventory over the next 4 weeks.
In this simplified example there are only three articles: shirt, jeans and socks, and one store to handle. The plan covers 4 weeks, of which the first one, i.e. the next one at the time of planning, is going to be actually used.
There are therefore 3 articles x 4 weeks = 12 price points to decide.
Conceptual model description
I show here two models.
- a “natural”/”direct” greybox non-linear formulation that translates business requirements directly in mathematical formulas using expressive but complicating equations, e.g. involving functions that are non-linear, non-differentiable or “blackbox”, i.e. not directly representable as equations
- a technical whitebox mixed-integer linear reformulation where the complicating equations in the non-linear formulation are approximated using binary variables to yield an equivalent but fully-linear and transparent model.
Usually, in practice, linear models are preferred to more complex ones, even if they could require additional effort to write, because the algorithms for linear models tend to be much more stable and efficient than ones for the alternatives.
Non-linear model description
Sets:
: set of weeks 0..3
: set of articles on sale {“socks”, “jeans”, “shirts”}
Data for ,
:
: demand function for price
: initial stock available
: cost
,
: minimum and maximum price allowed
Variables, for ,
:
: sold items
: stock left at the end of the week
: price
Constraints:
- C1: prices are within the allowed bounds
- C2: stock flows: last week’s stock is either sold or goes into the this week’s stock
where - C3: every week sell all the stock available until demand is satisfied.
In other words, the amount of items sold equals the demand if there’s enough stock or all the stock available otherwise, i.e. it is the minimum between the demand and the available stock
Objectives:
- O1: mazimize profit
- O2: minimize left-over stock
with
Linear model reformulation
The non-linear model has the following complicating elements:
- product between price and sales variables in profit definition
- constraint C3, where the following appear:
- a max expression
- a demand function, possibly a black-box ML model
In the next section I will show how to simplify both elements.
Linearizing profit and demand function
Price discretization and uniform discount notation
The price range of each article is discretized , i.e. partitioned in
equidistant prices
such that
according to step-size
.
For example, prices in the range between 30 and 50 € can be discretized with a 5€ step, yielding 5 different prices: 30, 35, 40, 45, 50.
More precisely, to allow a uniform and interpretable notation, price steps are represented across different articles using a “uniform discount notation” where the price of an article is represented as a “discount” from its base price .
E.g. socks and shirts could have a base price of 15€ and 80€ respectively and the actual price planned for a week could be 10% discount for socks and 20% for shirts, meaning the socks would be sold at 13.5€ and shirts at 64€ respectively.
The notation allows to evaluate the prices easily, as “discounts” represent the amount of profit margin foregone in a given context, e.g. on the sale each article or, in aggregate, for a category or a month.
In this example I use 10 5% discount steps from 0% (base price) to 50%.

Reformulation with discretized prices
Then for each article and week
:
- the demand function
is replaced in the model with the constants
for
, computed querying the forecast at each price point
.
- the price variable
is replaced by
binary variables
, one for each price step, such that
if price
is chosen.
- for each price step a new “price-sale” variable
is defined which represents the amount sold at that price
The following constraints are also added to the model for each article and week
- CL1 choose only one of the allowed discrete prices
- CL2 reformulates constraint C3 using price-sale and price-choice variables
Finally, profit objective can be rewritten as a linear function
Linearizing “min” operation with big-M formulation
Linearizing the “min” operation is a well-known “trick” in mathematical programming called “Big-M” reformulation.
Consider the constraint
The idea is add a binary variable that is 1 if the sold items
are equal to the first argument of the min function and zero otherwise.
In business terms, the flag is 1 if there’s enough stock to satisfy the demand at the current price, meaning
, and zero otherwise, meaning
, i.e. all the available stock is sold.
I then introduce the constraints
where and
are constants “large enough” that the rest of the right-hand side of the inequality becomes zero or negative when
is 0 and 1 respectively , making the corresponding constraint ineffective.
For example, when constraint (*) should not have effect, hence
for any possible value of the variables
.
For this example I set:
as demand cannot be higher than the maximum demand, and
as no stock can be higher than the stock available at the beginning (as there’s no replenishment in the model).
The 2 sets of “big-M” constraints together with the other constraints in CL2 guarantee that is indeed equal to the minimum of current demand at the current price
or to the available stock
.
Python price and inventory optimization
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
from pulp import *
from typing import NamedTuple, Dict, Any, Tuple
from itertools import product
Model = NamedTuple(
"Model",
(
("model", LpProblem), # PuLP model
("vars", Dict[str, Dict[Any, LpVariable]]), # problem variables indexed by name
(
"objs",
Dict[str, LpAffineExpression],
), # objectives indexed by name
),
)
def create_model(
articles_df: pd.DataFrame,
initial_stock_df: pd.DataFrame,
demand_df: pd.DataFrame,
) -> Model:
model = LpProblem("Pricing", LpMaximize)
# Sets & Parameters
Time = demand_df["week"].unique()
DiscountsLevels = dict(enumerate(np.sort(demand_df["discount"].unique())))
Articles = articles_df["article"]
demand = demand_df.set_index(["article", "week", "discount_level"])["demand"]
initial_stock = initial_stock_df.set_index(["article"])["initial_stock"]
profit_coef = get_profit_revenue_coefficients(articles_df, demand_df)
profit_coef = profit_coef.set_index(["article", "discount_level"])["profit"]
# Variables
discounts = LpVariable.dicts(
"x", product(Articles, Time, DiscountsLevels.keys()), cat=LpBinary
)
stock = LpVariable.dicts("l", product(Articles, Time), lowBound=0)
sales = LpVariable.dicts("S", product(Articles, Time), lowBound=0)
sales_discounts = LpVariable.dicts(
"s", product(Articles, Time, DiscountsLevels), lowBound=0
)
stock_dem_sel = LpVariable.dicts("y", product(Articles, Time), cat=LpBinary)
profit = LpVariable.dicts("prof", product(Articles, Time))
# Constraints
for (a, t) in product(Articles, Time):
model.addConstraint(
lpSum(discounts[a, t, d] for d in DiscountsLevels) == 1,
f"select_discount_{a}_{t}",
)
for (a, t, d) in product(Articles, Time, DiscountsLevels):
model.addConstraint(
sales_discounts[a, t, d] <= demand.loc[a, t, d] * discounts[a, t, d],
f"sales_demand_{a}_{t}_{d}",
)
for (a, t) in product(Articles, Time):
model.addConstraint(
sales[a, t] == lpSum(sales_discounts[a, t, d] for d in DiscountsLevels),
f"def_sales_{a}_{t}",
)
for (a, t) in product(Articles, Time):
model.addConstraint(
stock[a, t]
== (initial_stock.loc[a] if t == 0 else stock[a, t - 1]) - sales[a, t],
f"stock_flow_{a}_{t}",
)
# big-M constraint for demand selection constraint
max_demands = demand.groupby(["article", "week"]).max()
# small epsilon for big M constants
eps = 0.5
for (a, t) in product(Articles, Time):
model.addConstraint(
sales[a, t]
>= lpSum(demand.loc[a, t, d] * discounts[a, t, d] for d in DiscountsLevels)
- (max_demands.loc[a, t] + eps) * (1 - stock_dem_sel[a, t]),
f"sales_ge_dem_{a}_{t}",
)
for (a, t) in product(Articles, Time):
model.addConstraint(
sales[a, t]
>= (initial_stock.loc[a] if t == 0 else stock[a, t - 1])
- (initial_stock.loc[a] + eps) * stock_dem_sel[a, t],
f"dem_ge_sales_{a}_{t}",
)
# profit definition
for (a, t) in product(Articles, Time):
model.addConstraint(
profit[a, t]
== lpSum(
profit_coef.loc[a, d] * sales_discounts[a, t, d]
for d in DiscountsLevels
),
f"def_profit_{a}_{t}",
)
# Objectives
profit_function = lpSum(profit[a, t] for (a, t) in product(Articles, Time))
t_max = max(Time)
left_stock = lpSum(stock[a, t_max] for a in Articles)
# Setting default objective
model.setObjective(profit_function)
return Model(
model=model,
vars=dict(
discounts=discounts,
stock=stock,
sales=sales,
sales_discounts=sales_discounts,
stock_dem_sel=stock_dem_sel,
profit=profit
),
objs=dict(profit=profit_function, left_stock=left_stock),
)
def get_profit_revenue_coefficients(
articles: pd.DataFrame, demand: pd.DataFrame
) -> pd.DataFrame:
discount_levels = pd.DataFrame(
[(i, d) for i, d in enumerate(np.sort(demand["discount"].unique()))],
columns=["discount_level", "discount"],
)
discounted_prices = articles[["article", "base_price", "cost"]].join(
discount_levels, how="cross"
)
discounted_prices["price"] = discounted_prices["base_price"] * (
1 - discounted_prices["discount"]
)
discounted_prices["profit"] = discounted_prices["price"] - discounted_prices["cost"]
return discounted_prices[["article", "discount_level", "profit"]].copy()
Price and inventory optimization data
The tables listed data summarize the data used for executing the optimization run, i.e. for parametrizing the price and inventory optimization model.
Articles base prices
article | base_price | cost |
---|---|---|
socks | 10 | 5 |
jeans | 25 | 15 |
shirts | 40 | 25 |
Initial stock
article | initial_stock |
---|---|
socks | 290 |
jeans | 250 |
shirts | 280 |
Demand curve
article | week | price | discount | discount_level | demand |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
socks | 0 | 10.0 | 0.00 | 0 | 44 |
socks | 0 | 9.5 | 0.05 | 1 | 48 |
socks | 0 | 9.0 | 0.10 | 2 | 52 |
socks | 0 | 8.5 | 0.15 | 3 | 57 |
socks | 0 | 8.0 | 0.20 | 4 | 61 |
… | … | … | … | … | … |
shirts | 3 | 26.0 | 0.35 | 7 | 82 |
shirts | 3 | 24.0 | 0.40 | 8 | 87 |
shirts | 3 | 22.0 | 0.45 | 9 | 95 |
shirts | 3 | 20.0 | 0.50 | 10 | 97 |
Profit maximization model in Python
The first step or Scenario of the optimization process is to optimize for profit, which is the default objective of the model. Hence, first I create the basic model
model = create_model(article_df, initial_stock_df, demand_df)
then call solve()
on the PuLP model
model.model.solve()
Welcome to the CBC MILP Solver
Version: 2.10.3
Build Date: Dec 15 2019
command line - /home/ataverna/pyvenv/pricing-scda/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pulp/apis/../solverdir/cbc/linux/64/cbc /tmp/d0a41743ad5b4cad8606ce0c4a1d2841-pulp.mps max timeMode elapsed branch printingOptions all solution /tmp/d0a41743ad5b4cad8606ce0c4a1d2841-pulp.sol (default strategy 1)
At line 2 NAME MODEL
At line 3 ROWS
At line 257 COLUMNS
At line 1840 RHS
At line 2093 BOUNDS
At line 2298 ENDATA
Problem MODEL has 252 rows, 408 columns and 1186 elements
Coin0008I MODEL read with 0 errors
Option for timeMode changed from cpu to elapsed
Continuous objective value is 5228.77 - 0.00 seconds
Cgl0004I processed model has 228 rows, 384 columns (192 integer (192 of which binary)) and 984 elements
Cbc0038I Initial state - 12 integers unsatisfied sum - 3.78927
Cbc0038I Pass 1: suminf. 1.64775 (5) obj. -5228.77 iterations 119
Cbc0038I Solution found of -5228.77
Cbc0038I Relaxing continuous gives -5228.77
Cbc0038I Before mini branch and bound, 180 integers at bound fixed and 168 continuous
Cbc0038I Mini branch and bound did not improve solution (0.02 seconds)
Cbc0038I After 0.02 seconds - Feasibility pump exiting with objective of -5228.77 - took 0.00 seconds
Cbc0012I Integer solution of -5228.7666 found by feasibility pump after 0 iterations and 0 nodes (0.02 seconds)
Cbc0001I Search completed - best objective -5228.766562804411, took 0 iterations and 0 nodes (0.02 seconds)
Cbc0035I Maximum depth 0, 0 variables fixed on reduced cost
Cuts at root node changed objective from -5228.77 to -5228.77
Probing was tried 0 times and created 0 cuts of which 0 were active after adding rounds of cuts (0.000 seconds)
Gomory was tried 0 times and created 0 cuts of which 0 were active after adding rounds of cuts (0.000 seconds)
Knapsack was tried 0 times and created 0 cuts of which 0 were active after adding rounds of cuts (0.000 seconds)
Clique was tried 0 times and created 0 cuts of which 0 were active after adding rounds of cuts (0.000 seconds)
MixedIntegerRounding2 was tried 0 times and created 0 cuts of which 0 were active after adding rounds of cuts (0.000 seconds)
FlowCover was tried 0 times and created 0 cuts of which 0 were active after adding rounds of cuts (0.000 seconds)
TwoMirCuts was tried 0 times and created 0 cuts of which 0 were active after adding rounds of cuts (0.000 seconds)
ZeroHalf was tried 0 times and created 0 cuts of which 0 were active after adding rounds of cuts (0.000 seconds)
Result - Optimal solution found
Objective value: 5228.76656280
Enumerated nodes: 0
Total iterations: 0
Time (CPU seconds): 0.02
Time (Wallclock seconds): 0.03
Option for printingOptions changed from normal to all
Total time (CPU seconds): 0.03 (Wallclock seconds): 0.03
1
The profit-optimal solution has then the following objectives:
- total profit: 5229 €
- stock left: 226 units
Inventory optimization in Python
The second step/scenario of the optimization process consists of minimizing the left-over stock while keeping the overall profit “close” to the optimum.
More specifically, I allow a 2.75% loss at most from the theoretical (i.e. extremely unlikely to be obtained in practice) optimal profit computed in the first scenario to provide the solver enough slack to find an effective stock-minimizing solution in reasonable time.
Given the simplicity of the current problem, an even smaller slack could have been allowed without worsening the left-stock reduction.
In the code I then add the constraint that the profit must be within 100%-2.75% = 97.5% of the optimal profit
model.model.addConstraint(model.objs["profit"]>= 0.975 * model.objs["profit"].value())
, set the left-over stock as the new objective to minimize
model.model.setObjective(model.objs["left_stock"])
model.model.sense = LpMinimize
and finally call solve()
on the PuLP model
model.model.solve()
Welcome to the CBC MILP Solver
Version: 2.10.3
Build Date: Dec 15 2019
command line - /home/ataverna/pyvenv/pricing-scda/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pulp/apis/../solverdir/cbc/linux/64/cbc /tmp/544e8a41484d4d4e9d8a9fc3f5ed4304-pulp.mps timeMode elapsed branch printingOptions all solution /tmp/544e8a41484d4d4e9d8a9fc3f5ed4304-pulp.sol (default strategy 1)
At line 2 NAME MODEL
At line 3 ROWS
At line 258 COLUMNS
At line 1844 RHS
At line 2098 BOUNDS
At line 2303 ENDATA
Problem MODEL has 253 rows, 408 columns and 1198 elements
Coin0008I MODEL read with 0 errors
Option for timeMode changed from cpu to elapsed
Continuous objective value is 111.636 - 0.00 seconds
Cgl0004I processed model has 229 rows, 384 columns (192 integer (192 of which binary)) and 1156 elements
Cbc0038I Initial state - 14 integers unsatisfied sum - 3.76888
Cbc0038I Pass 1: suminf. 1.58139 (8) obj. 112.209 iterations 43
Cbc0038I Pass 2: suminf. 0.00000 (0) obj. 133.436 iterations 152
Cbc0038I Solution found of 133.436
Cbc0038I Relaxing continuous gives 133.436
Cbc0038I Before mini branch and bound, 176 integers at bound fixed and 166 continuous
Cbc0038I Full problem 229 rows 384 columns, reduced to 11 rows 10 columns
Cbc0038I Mini branch and bound improved solution from 133.436 to 114.944 (0.03 seconds)
Cbc0038I Freeing continuous variables gives a solution of 114.944
Cbc0038I Round again with cutoff of 114.613
Cbc0038I Reduced cost fixing fixed 145 variables on major pass 2
Cbc0038I Pass 3: suminf. 1.61787 (8) obj. 111.763 iterations 4
Cbc0038I Pass 4: suminf. 0.66518 (3) obj. 114.613 iterations 104
Cbc0038I Pass 5: suminf. 0.94754 (2) obj. 113.247 iterations 43
Cbc0038I Pass 6: suminf. 0.94754 (2) obj. 113.247 iterations 0
Cbc0038I Pass 7: suminf. 1.58902 (6) obj. 114.613 iterations 85
Cbc0038I Pass 8: suminf. 1.26499 (4) obj. 113.294 iterations 44
Cbc0038I Pass 9: suminf. 0.42748 (4) obj. 114.613 iterations 106
Cbc0038I Pass 10: suminf. 0.68311 (3) obj. 114.613 iterations 85
Cbc0038I Pass 11: suminf. 1.85027 (11) obj. 114.613 iterations 17
Cbc0038I Pass 12: suminf. 1.10259 (8) obj. 114.613 iterations 23
Cbc0038I Pass 13: suminf. 0.21183 (2) obj. 114.027 iterations 59
Cbc0038I Pass 14: suminf. 0.05738 (3) obj. 114.613 iterations 59
Cbc0038I Pass 15: suminf. 1.26492 (5) obj. 114.198 iterations 53
Cbc0038I Pass 16: suminf. 0.37675 (4) obj. 114.613 iterations 25
Cbc0038I Pass 17: suminf. 1.31377 (6) obj. 114.198 iterations 35
Cbc0038I Pass 18: suminf. 0.51615 (5) obj. 114.613 iterations 37
Cbc0038I Pass 19: suminf. 0.90693 (5) obj. 114.198 iterations 26
Cbc0038I Pass 20: suminf. 0.69802 (6) obj. 114.613 iterations 32
Cbc0038I Pass 21: suminf. 0.21183 (2) obj. 114.027 iterations 57
Cbc0038I Pass 22: suminf. 0.05738 (3) obj. 114.613 iterations 59
Cbc0038I Pass 23: suminf. 0.62276 (3) obj. 114.325 iterations 39
Cbc0038I Pass 24: suminf. 0.05738 (3) obj. 114.613 iterations 45
Cbc0038I Pass 25: suminf. 0.62844 (6) obj. 114.613 iterations 13
Cbc0038I Pass 26: suminf. 0.49877 (5) obj. 114.613 iterations 11
Cbc0038I Pass 27: suminf. 1.64977 (6) obj. 114.027 iterations 57
Cbc0038I Pass 28: suminf. 1.08784 (7) obj. 114.613 iterations 33
Cbc0038I Pass 29: suminf. 0.21183 (2) obj. 114.027 iterations 58
Cbc0038I Pass 30: suminf. 1.58568 (5) obj. 112.799 iterations 5
Cbc0038I Pass 31: suminf. 1.11549 (3) obj. 112.799 iterations 2
Cbc0038I Pass 32: suminf. 0.37450 (3) obj. 114.613 iterations 66
Cbc0038I No solution found this major pass
Cbc0038I Before mini branch and bound, 157 integers at bound fixed and 151 continuous
Cbc0038I Full problem 229 rows 384 columns, reduced to 43 rows 51 columns
Cbc0038I Mini branch and bound improved solution from 114.944 to 113.6 (0.09 seconds)
Cbc0038I Freeing continuous variables gives a solution of 113.6
Cbc0038I Round again with cutoff of 113.207
Cbc0038I Reduced cost fixing fixed 149 variables on major pass 3
Cbc0038I Pass 32: suminf. 1.66426 (8) obj. 111.763 iterations 2
Cbc0038I Pass 33: suminf. 0.93358 (3) obj. 113.207 iterations 70
Cbc0038I Pass 34: suminf. 0.97581 (2) obj. 112.863 iterations 54
Cbc0038I Pass 35: suminf. 0.97581 (2) obj. 112.863 iterations 0
Cbc0038I Pass 36: suminf. 1.94824 (5) obj. 113.207 iterations 27
Cbc0038I Pass 37: suminf. 1.47157 (4) obj. 113.207 iterations 7
Cbc0038I Pass 38: suminf. 0.17932 (4) obj. 113.207 iterations 29
Cbc0038I Pass 39: suminf. 0.49343 (4) obj. 113.207 iterations 93
Cbc0038I Pass 40: suminf. 0.28741 (4) obj. 113.207 iterations 52
Cbc0038I Pass 41: suminf. 1.71595 (4) obj. 113.207 iterations 50
Cbc0038I Pass 42: suminf. 1.15551 (4) obj. 113.207 iterations 85
Cbc0038I Pass 43: suminf. 1.00905 (4) obj. 113.207 iterations 50
Cbc0038I Pass 44: suminf. 0.74832 (3) obj. 113.207 iterations 73
Cbc0038I Pass 45: suminf. 2.20863 (7) obj. 113.207 iterations 47
Cbc0038I Pass 46: suminf. 0.79703 (5) obj. 113.207 iterations 29
Cbc0038I Pass 47: suminf. 0.29820 (2) obj. 112.799 iterations 49
Cbc0038I Pass 48: suminf. 0.15360 (3) obj. 113.207 iterations 70
Cbc0038I Pass 49: suminf. 1.11561 (6) obj. 113.207 iterations 3
Cbc0038I Pass 50: suminf. 0.15360 (3) obj. 113.207 iterations 3
Cbc0038I Pass 51: suminf. 1.44008 (5) obj. 112.496 iterations 48
Cbc0038I Pass 52: suminf. 0.59760 (5) obj. 113.207 iterations 46
Cbc0038I Pass 53: suminf. 1.24528 (6) obj. 113.207 iterations 47
Cbc0038I Pass 54: suminf. 0.85442 (6) obj. 113.207 iterations 16
Cbc0038I Pass 55: suminf. 0.34233 (2) obj. 112.863 iterations 57
Cbc0038I Pass 56: suminf. 0.25171 (3) obj. 113.207 iterations 57
Cbc0038I Pass 57: suminf. 1.77001 (5) obj. 113.207 iterations 27
Cbc0038I Pass 58: suminf. 0.56079 (4) obj. 113.207 iterations 28
Cbc0038I Pass 59: suminf. 0.29820 (2) obj. 112.799 iterations 48
Cbc0038I Pass 60: suminf. 0.15360 (3) obj. 113.207 iterations 65
Cbc0038I Pass 61: suminf. 1.33300 (6) obj. 113.207 iterations 28
Cbc0038I No solution found this major pass
Cbc0038I Before mini branch and bound, 162 integers at bound fixed and 154 continuous
Cbc0038I Full problem 229 rows 384 columns, reduced to 34 rows 43 columns
Cbc0038I Mini branch and bound improved solution from 113.6 to 112.116 (0.13 seconds)
Cbc0038I Freeing continuous variables gives a solution of 112.116
Cbc0038I Round again with cutoff of 111.972
Cbc0038I Reduced cost fixing fixed 154 variables on major pass 4
Cbc0038I Pass 61: suminf. 1.72999 (8) obj. 111.636 iterations 4
Cbc0038I Pass 62: suminf. 0.66893 (3) obj. 111.972 iterations 86
Cbc0038I Pass 63: suminf. 0.27119 (2) obj. 111.636 iterations 132
Cbc0038I Pass 64: suminf. 0.67335 (4) obj. 111.972 iterations 76
Cbc0038I Pass 65: suminf. 0.37376 (3) obj. 111.636 iterations 126
Cbc0038I Pass 66: suminf. 1.41352 (6) obj. 111.972 iterations 46
Cbc0038I Pass 67: suminf. 0.69305 (5) obj. 111.972 iterations 67
Cbc0038I Pass 68: suminf. 0.38467 (4) obj. 111.972 iterations 50
Cbc0038I Pass 69: suminf. 0.25329 (3) obj. 111.972 iterations 110
Cbc0038I Pass 70: suminf. 0.79158 (5) obj. 111.972 iterations 78
Cbc0038I Pass 71: suminf. 0.41506 (3) obj. 111.972 iterations 31
Cbc0038I Pass 72: suminf. 0.05771 (3) obj. 111.972 iterations 85
Cbc0038I Pass 73: suminf. 0.00787 (2) obj. 111.972 iterations 45
Cbc0038I Pass 74: suminf. 1.16702 (5) obj. 111.972 iterations 3
Cbc0038I Pass 75: suminf. 0.00787 (2) obj. 111.972 iterations 3
Cbc0038I Pass 76: suminf. 0.30593 (2) obj. 111.636 iterations 73
Cbc0038I Pass 77: suminf. 0.18519 (3) obj. 111.972 iterations 42
Cbc0038I Pass 78: suminf. 0.35284 (4) obj. 111.972 iterations 49
Cbc0038I Pass 79: suminf. 1.32921 (6) obj. 111.779 iterations 51
Cbc0038I Pass 80: suminf. 0.68945 (5) obj. 111.972 iterations 42
Cbc0038I Pass 81: suminf. 1.09325 (4) obj. 111.972 iterations 110
Cbc0038I Pass 82: suminf. 0.68945 (5) obj. 111.972 iterations 92
Cbc0038I Pass 83: suminf. 1.13903 (5) obj. 111.636 iterations 32
Cbc0038I Pass 84: suminf. 1.22882 (5) obj. 111.636 iterations 5
Cbc0038I Pass 85: suminf. 0.99144 (6) obj. 111.972 iterations 39
Cbc0038I Pass 86: suminf. 1.78307 (7) obj. 111.972 iterations 51
Cbc0038I Pass 87: suminf. 0.99144 (6) obj. 111.972 iterations 108
Cbc0038I Pass 88: suminf. 0.35284 (4) obj. 111.972 iterations 50
Cbc0038I Pass 89: suminf. 0.18519 (3) obj. 111.972 iterations 114
Cbc0038I Pass 90: suminf. 1.90103 (7) obj. 111.972 iterations 53
Cbc0038I No solution found this major pass
Cbc0038I Before mini branch and bound, 167 integers at bound fixed and 159 continuous
Cbc0038I Full problem 229 rows 384 columns, reduced to 27 rows 31 columns
Cbc0038I Mini branch and bound did not improve solution (0.18 seconds)
Cbc0038I After 0.18 seconds - Feasibility pump exiting with objective of 112.116 - took 0.15 seconds
Cbc0012I Integer solution of 112.11639 found by feasibility pump after 0 iterations and 0 nodes (0.19 seconds)
Cbc0038I Full problem 229 rows 384 columns, reduced to 15 rows 14 columns
Cbc0031I 4 added rows had average density of 7.75
Cbc0013I At root node, 5 cuts changed objective from 111.63555 to 112.11639 in 2 passes
Cbc0014I Cut generator 0 (Probing) - 10 row cuts average 2.6 elements, 8 column cuts (8 active) in 0.001 seconds - new frequency is 1
Cbc0014I Cut generator 1 (Gomory) - 0 row cuts average 0.0 elements, 0 column cuts (0 active) in 0.000 seconds - new frequency is -100
Cbc0014I Cut generator 2 (Knapsack) - 2 row cuts average 7.0 elements, 0 column cuts (0 active) in 0.001 seconds - new frequency is 1
Cbc0014I Cut generator 3 (Clique) - 0 row cuts average 0.0 elements, 0 column cuts (0 active) in 0.000 seconds - new frequency is -100
Cbc0014I Cut generator 4 (MixedIntegerRounding2) - 1 row cuts average 7.0 elements, 0 column cuts (0 active) in 0.000 seconds - new frequency is 1
Cbc0014I Cut generator 5 (FlowCover) - 1 row cuts average 3.0 elements, 0 column cuts (0 active) in 0.000 seconds - new frequency is 1
Cbc0014I Cut generator 6 (TwoMirCuts) - 11 row cuts average 5.5 elements, 0 column cuts (0 active) in 0.001 seconds - new frequency is -100
Cbc0001I Search completed - best objective 112.11638707256, took 22 iterations and 0 nodes (0.21 seconds)
Cbc0035I Maximum depth 0, 154 variables fixed on reduced cost
Cuts at root node changed objective from 111.636 to 112.116
Probing was tried 2 times and created 18 cuts of which 0 were active after adding rounds of cuts (0.001 seconds)
Gomory was tried 2 times and created 0 cuts of which 0 were active after adding rounds of cuts (0.000 seconds)
Knapsack was tried 2 times and created 2 cuts of which 0 were active after adding rounds of cuts (0.001 seconds)
Clique was tried 2 times and created 0 cuts of which 0 were active after adding rounds of cuts (0.000 seconds)
MixedIntegerRounding2 was tried 2 times and created 1 cuts of which 0 were active after adding rounds of cuts (0.000 seconds)
FlowCover was tried 2 times and created 1 cuts of which 0 were active after adding rounds of cuts (0.000 seconds)
TwoMirCuts was tried 2 times and created 11 cuts of which 0 were active after adding rounds of cuts (0.001 seconds)
ZeroHalf was tried 1 times and created 0 cuts of which 0 were active after adding rounds of cuts (0.000 seconds)
Result - Optimal solution found
Objective value: 112.11638707
Enumerated nodes: 0
Total iterations: 22
Time (CPU seconds): 0.20
Time (Wallclock seconds): 0.22
Option for printingOptions changed from normal to all
Total time (CPU seconds): 0.20 (Wallclock seconds): 0.22
1
The stock-minimizing solution has then:
- total profit: 5100 €
- stock left: 112 units
Price and inventory optimization results
The table below summarizes the final results of this optimization project. The objectives are shown for each scenario. The relative change from Scenario 1 to Scenario 2 is reported in the last column.
Objectives | Scenario 1: max profit | Scenario 2: max profit/min left stock | change from Scenario 1 to Scenario 2 [%] |
Total profit [€] | 5229 | 5100 | -2.5 |
Stock left [units] | 226 | 112 | -50.4 |
As described in the previous article, the “multi-objective” approach of optimizing for profit first and then for left-over stock allows to significantly reduce the left-over stock with minimum profit loss.
Both scenarios share the same “core” model, i.e. code implementation. Compared to the first scenario, the second scenario has just a different objective, from profit maximization to left-stock minimization, and an additional constraint to keep the total profit close to the optimal value computed in Scenario 1. Both changes are implemented in a couple of lines of code.
More on price and inventory optimization
If you are interested in inventory optimization and optimal pricing you might want to read some other related SCDA articles. Find the list below.
- Link: Pricing with linear demand function using GEKKO in Python
- Link: Inventory simulation for optimized stock
- Link: Price optimization for maximum price and inventory control
As this article applies multi-objective optimization you might furthermore also be interested in the following articles:
- Link: Scalarizing multi-objective optimizations
- Link: Multi-objective LP with sub-problem weights
- Link: Multi-objective LP with PuLP in Python

Operations researcher/optimization consultant with experience in energy, retail, manufacturing, pricing and revenue management.
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