DYNAMIC INFORMATION CONTROL FOR MULTIECHELON PRODUCTION-DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS WITH CONSTRAINED PRODUCTION CAPACITY

In industrial production-distribution systems, production and purchasi ng rates, associated inventories, and sales are very critical in contr ibuting to the profits of each component. The objective of this study is to investigate effective information control for a production-distr ibution system by automatic feedback control techniques. A discrete-ti me dynamic control scheme is applied to a multi-echelon production-dis tribution system described by a continuous-time model with uncertainti es of 50 per cent. When an upper limit is imposed on the productive ra te by available factory space and capital equipment, supervisory contr ol is implemented to avoid reset-windup and deterioration of system pe rformance. A numerical example is used to show the effectiveness of su pervisory control for uncertain multi-echelon production-distribution systems with constrained production capacity. For a step increase in p roduct demand, unfilled orders at retail (a percentage of retail sales ) rises smoothly to its new steady value with little overshoot. The su pervisory controller implemented here modifies the system dynamics to handle entry and appropriate exit from the manufacturing capacity cons traint.