CYCLICAL SCHEDULES FOR THE JOINT REPLENISHMENT PROBLEM WITH DYNAMIC DEMANDS

The Joint Replenishment Problem (JRP) involves production planning for a family of items. The items have a coordinated cost structure whereb y a major setup cost is incurred whenever any item in the family is pr oduced, and an item-specific minor setup cost is incurred whenever tha t item is produced. This paper investigates the performance of two typ es of cyclical production schedules for the SRP with dynamic demands o ver a finite planning horizon. The cyclical schedules considered are: (i) general cyclical schedules-schedules where the number of periods b etween successive production runs for any item is constant over the pl anning horizon-and (2) power-of-two schedules -a subset of cyclical sc hedules for which the number of periods between successive setups must be a power of 2. The paper evaluates the additional cost incurred by requiring schedules to be cyclical, and identifies problem characteris tics that have a significant effect on this additional cost. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.