Abstract
Due to the importance of lead time demand in the design of inventory management systems, researchers and practitioners have paid continuous attention and a few analytic models using the compound distribution approach have been reported. However, since the nature of compound distributions is hardly amenable, the analytic models have been done by non‐recognition of the compound nature of some components to reduce the analytic task. This study concerns some of the important aspects in the analytic models. Through the theoretic examination of the analytic model approach and the comparison with the rigid compound stochastic process approach, this study clarifies the assumptions implicitly made by the analytic models and provides some precautions in using the analytic models. Illustrative examples are also presented.