Independent Demand refers to demand for an item that is unrelated to the demand for other items.

• A. Demand for an item that is dependent on other items
• B. Demand for an item unrelated to the demand for other items
• C. Demand that fluctuates with seasons
• D. Demand that comes only from stockouts

Answer: (B)

Independent demand is the demand for items whose need isn’t driven by the demand for other items. In practice, you forecast and plan for finished goods or spare parts that end up in customer orders, not for components whose requirement comes from producing something else. That’s why this choice—describing demand as unrelated to the demand for other items—is the best fit. The other ideas don’t capture this distinction: demand for items that depend on other items is a derived or dependent demand (it comes from the production plan); seasonal fluctuations describe timing changes, not whether demand is linked to other items; and demand arising from stockouts isn’t a type of demand at all, but a consequence of inventory shortfalls.