Scheduling Multi-Product Lots on a Single Facility

摘要

A problem in scheduling multi-product lots on a single facility to minimize total costs over a given finite planning horizon is considered. A multi-product 'mix' is defined as a specified sequence of units of different products. All mixes contain the same total number of product units, but one mix differs from another in the sequence of the individual product units and/or the number of units of at least two products. The relevant costs are those incurred whenever the facility is changed over from the production of one mix to another and when actual production fails to meet target production as of the end of the planning horizon. Every mix requires the same processing time; mixes may not be split; a mix, once started, must be completed; only one mix may be processed at a time. A branch-and-bound algorithm augmented by several results which capitalize on the particular problem structure is developed. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the algorithm. (Author)