International Journal of Industrial Engineering & Production Research

---

 Abstract : In this paper a meta-heuristic approach has been presented to solve lot-size determination problems in a complex multi-stage production planning problems with production capacity constraint. This type of problems has multiple products with sequential production processes which are manufactured in different periods to meet customer’s demand. By determining the decision variables, machinery production capacity and customer’s demand, an integer linear program with the objective function of minimization of total costs of set-up, inventory and production is achieved. In the first step, the original problem is decomposed to several sub-problems using a heuristic approach based on the limited resource Lagrange multiplier. Thus, each sub-problem can be solved using one of the easier methods. In the second step, through combining the genetic algorithm with one of the neighborhood search techniques, a new approach has been developed for the sub-problems. In the third step, to obtain a better result, resource leveling is performed for the smaller problems using a heuristic algorithm. Using this method, each product’s lot-size is determined through several steps. This paper’s propositions have been studied and verified through considerable empirical experiments.

 

---

 

Dynamic cellular manufacturing systems,   Mixed-integer non-linear programming,   Production planning, Manufacturing attributes

This paper presents a novel mixed-integer non-linear programming model for the design of a dynamic cellular manufacturing system (DCMS) based on production planning (PP) decisions and several manufacturing attributes. Such an integrated DCMS model with an extensive coverage of important design features has not been proposed yet and incorporates several manufacturing attributes including alternative process routings, operation sequence, processing time, production volume of parts, purchasing machine, duplicate machines, machine depot, machine capacity, lot splitting, material flow conservation equations, inflation coefficient, cell workload balancing, budget constraints for cell construction and machine procurement, varying number of formed cells, worker capacity, holding inventories and backorders, outsourcing part-operations, warehouse capacity, and cell reconfiguration. The objective of the integrated model is to minimize the total costs of cell construction, cell unemployment, machine overhead and machine processing, part-operations setup and production, outsourcing, backorders, inventory holding, material handling between system and warehouse, intra-cell and inter-cell movements, purchasing new machines, and machine relocation/installation/uninstallation. A comprehensive numerical example taken from the literature is solved by the Lingo software to illustrate the performance of the proposed model in handling the PP decisions and to investigate the incorporated manufacturing attributes in an integrated DCMS .

---

 In this paper a single server queuing production system is considered which is subject to gradual deterioration. The system is discussed under two different deteriorating conditions. A planning horizon is considered and server which is a D/M/1 queuing system is gradually deteriorates through time periods. A maintenance policy is taken into account whereby the server is restored to its initial condition before some distinct periods. This system is modeled to obtain optimal values of arrival rates and also optimal maintenance policy which minimizes production, holding and maintenance costs and tries to satisfy demands through time periods. The model is also considered to control customers’ sojourn times. For each deteriorating condition a model is developed. Models are solved by GA based algorithms and results for a sample are represented .

---

Achieving optimal production cycle time for improving manufacturing processes is one of the common problems in production planning. During recent years, different approaches have been developed for solving this problem, but most of them assume that mean quality characteristic is constant over production run length and sets it on customer’s target value. However, the process mean may drift from an in-control to an out-of-control at a random point in time. This study aims to select the production cycle time and the initial setting of mean quality characteristic, so that the expected total cost, consisting of quality loss and maintenance costs as well as ordering and holding costs, already considered in the classic models is minimized. To investigate the effect of mean process setting, a computational analysis on a real world example is performed. Results show the superiority of the proposed approach compared to the classical economic production quantity model.

---

Supply chain members coordinate with each other in order to obtain more profit. The major mechanisms for coordination among supply chain echelons are pricing, inventory management, and ordering decisions. This paper concerns these mechanisms in a multi-echelon supply chain consisting of multiple suppliers, one manufacturer, and multiple retailers in order to study the price and leadtime competition, where the make-to-order production mode is employed and consumers are sensitive to retail price and leadtime. In the current study, a novel inventory model is presented, where the manufacturer has an exclusive supplier for every required component of its final product. The interactions and decisions of the firms are observed in multiple time periods. Moreover, each supply chain member has equal power and make their decisions simultaneously. The proposed model considers the relationships among three echelon supply chain members based on a non-cooperative Nash game with pricing and inventory decisions. An iterative solution algorithm is proposed to find Nash equilibrium point of the game. Several numerical examples are presented to study the application of the model as well as the effectiveness of the algorithm. Finally, a comprehensive sensitivity analysis is performed and some important managerial insights are highlighted.
 

---

In this paper, an integrated mathematical model of the dynamic cell formation and production planning, considering the pricing and advertising decision is proposed. This paper puts emphasis on the effect of demand aspects (e.g., pricing and advertising decisions) along with the supply aspects (e.g., reconfiguration, inventory, backorder and outsourcing decisions) in developed model. Due to imprecise and fuzzy nature of input data such as unit costs, capacities and processing times in practice, a fuzzy multi-objective programming model is proposed to determine the optimal demand and supply variables simultaneously. For this purpose, a fuzzy goal programming method is used to solve the equivalent defuzzified multi-objective model. The objective functions are to maximize the total profit for firm and maximize the utilization rate of machine capacity. The proposed model and solution method is verified by a numerical example.

---

Companies and firms, nowadays, due to mounting competition and product diversity, seek to apply virtual cellular manufacturing systems to reduce production costs and improve quality of the products. In addition, as a result of rapid advancement of technology and the reduction of product life cycle, production systems have turned towards dynamic production environments. Dynamic cellular manufacturing environments examine multi-period planning horizon, with changing demands for the periods. A dynamic virtual cellular manufacturing system is a new production approach to help manufacturers for decision making. Here, due to variability of demand rates in different periods, which turns to flow variability, a mathematical model is presented for dynamic production planning. In this model, we consider virtual cell production conditions and worker flexibility, so that a proper relationship between capital and production parameters (part-machine-worker) is determined by the minimum lost sales of products to customers, a minimal inventory cost, along with a minimal material handling cost. The problems based on the proposed model are solved using LINGO, as well as an epsilon constraint algorithm.