The benefit of receding horizon control: Near-optimal policies for stochastic inventory control

•We address the non-stationary stochastic lot-sizing problem under backorder costs.•Complexity/nervousness of optimal policy motivates use of heuristic policies.•We provide a systematic comparison of cost performance for these policies.•Under a receding horizon implementation cost performance improves considerably.•Under receding horizon differences among heuristic policies become insignificant.