1. A computer-implemented method for optimizing a planned distribution of packs of an item among a plurality of retail stores, comprising: specifying constraint values that limit what values may be included in the planned distribution of packs; applying a heuristic to reduce the computation time required to determine optimal values for the planned distribution; and using a mixed-integer linear programming solver to model the planned distribution of packs and determine optimized values for numbers of packs to be distributed to the plurality of retail stores.