A COMPARISON OF SOLUTION APPROACHES FOR THE FIXED-SEQUENCE ECONOMIC LOT SCHEDULING PROBLEM

The economic lot scheduling problem (ELSP) has received much attention recently. The general version of the problem has a nonconvex objectiv e function, so it is difficult to find truly optimal solutions. We exa mine the three most popular heuristic approaches to the fixed-sequence ELSP. Each approach imposes one or both of these simplifying constrai nts: the zero-switch constraint (production of a part is started only when its inventory is depleted) and the equal-lot constraint (the lot size of a given part is constant through time). We provide a formulati on that clarifies the relationships between the general problem and th e three constrained versions, and compare their performances in a comp utational study.