OPTIMIZING THE ALLOCATION OF COMPONENTS TO KITS IN SMALL-LOT, MULTIECHELON ASSEMBLY SYSTEMS

The kitting problem in multiechelon assembly systems is to allocate on -hand stock and anticipated future deliveries to kits so that cost is minimized. This article structures the kitting problem and describes s everal preprocessing methods that are effective in refining the formul ation. The model is resolved using an optimizing approach based on Lag rangian relaxation, which yields a separable problem that decomposes i nto a subproblem for each job. The resulting subproblems are resolved using a specialized dynamic programming algorithm, and computational e fficiency is enhanced by dominance properties devised for that purpose . The Lagrangian problem is resolved effectively using subgradient opt imization and a specialized branching method incorporated in the branc h-and-bound procedure. Computational experience demonstrates that the specialized approach out-performs the general-purpose optimizer OSL. T he new solution approach facilitates time-managed flow control, prescr ibing kitting decisions that promote cost-effective performance to sch edule. (C) 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.