CUSTOMER WAITING-TIME DISTRIBUTIONS UNDER BASE-STOCK POLICIES IN SINGLE-FACILITY MULTIITEM PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

We derive efficient and highly accurate approximations for the custome r waiting-time distributions experienced in stochastic economic lot sc heduling systems (SELSPs) that are governed by general base-stock poli cies under a cyclic or more general periodic item sequence. SELSPs inv olve settings where several items need to be produced in a common faci lity with limited capacity, under significant uncertainty regarding de mands, unit production times, setup times, or combinations thereof. Un der a base-stock policy one continues production of a given item until a specific target level is reached; the different items are produced in a given periodic sequence, possibly with idle times inserted betwee n the completion of an item's production batch and the setup of the ne xt item. We also demonstrate how base-stock levels can be specified ef ficiently to guarantee any prescribed fill rate within a specific serv ice window or distribution of service windows. (C) 1996 John Wiley & S ons, Inc.