AbstractWe consider here the inventory replenishment policy over a fixed planning period for a deteriorating item having a deterministic demand pattern with a linear trend and shortages. The number of reorders, the interval between two successive reorders and the shortage intervals over a finite time-horizon are all determined in an optimal manner so as to keep the average system cost to a minimum. One numerical example illustrates how the procedure works. The counterpart of this example in the no-shortage case is also given. The effects of variation in the deterioration rate on the optimal policy are also indicated with numerical examples.