R. Metters, PRODUCING MULTIPLE PRODUCTS WITH STOCHASTIC SEASONAL DEMAND AND CAPACITY LIMITS, The Journal of the Operational Research Society, 49(3), 1998, pp. 263-272
Citations number
22
Categorie Soggetti
Management,"Operatione Research & Management Science","Operatione Research & Management Science
Capacity limitations for manufacturers of seasonally demanded goods cr
eate difficult problems for both practitioners and researchers. Empiri
cal data suggest that practitioner response is far from optimal. Optim
al solutions, however, are precluded for realistic problems due to com
putational complexity. Here, the structure of optimal policies is expl
ored and heuristics based on myopic policies are developed. For simple
problems, the best heuristic deviates from optimality by an average o
f 2.5% over a variety of conditions. Heuristics are also compared unde
r more realistic business conditions by simulation.