Data-Driven Optimization for Commodity Procurement Under Price Uncertainty

Problem definition: We study a practice-motivated multiperiod stochastic commodity procurement problem under price uncertainty with forward and spot purchase options. Existing approaches are based on parametric price models, which inevitably involve price model misspecification and generalization error. Academic/practical relevance: We propose a nonparametric, data-driven approach (DDA) that is consistent with the optimal procurement policy structure but without requiring the a priori specification and estimation of stochastic price processes. In addition to historical prices, DDA is able to leverage real-time feature data, such as economic indicators, in solving the problem. Methodology: This paper provides a framework for prescriptive analytics in dynamic commodity procurement, with optimal purchase policies learned directly from data as functions of features, via mixed integer linear programming (MILP) under cost minimization objectives. Hence, DDA focuses on optimal decisions rather than optimal predictions. Furthermore, we combine optimization with regularization from machine learning (ML) to extract decision-relevant data from noise. Results: Based on numerical experiments and empirical data, we show that there is a significant value of feature data for commodity procurement when procurement policy parameters are learned as functions of features. However, overfitting deteriorates the performance of data-driven solutions, which asks for ML extensions to improve out-of-sample generalization. Compared with an internal best-practice benchmark, DDA generates savings of on average 9.1 million euros per annum (4.33%) for 10 years of backtesting. Managerial implications: A practical benefit of DDA is that it yields simple but optimally structured decision rules that are easy to interpret and easy to operationalize. Furthermore, DDA is generalizable and applicable to many other procurement settings. History: This paper has been accepted as part of the 2019 Manufacturing & Service Operations Management Practice-Based Research Competition. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2020.0890 .