Optimum stratification and allocation in inventory sampling: An efficient two stage grid search procedure

Standard Methods of optimal stratification are solving the optimization problem as a function of strata boundaries and sample allocation only. In this paper we show that by means of a flexible two stage grid search procedure strata boundaries, sample allocation and furthermore number of strata can be taken into account in an effective way when optimizing stratification and allocation. By means of a Monte Carlo simulation we show that the proposed procedure is efficient compared to the well known standard procedures.