Modelsand Algorithm For Production Scheduling With Lead-time Quotation

In MTO, Lead-time is a major factor that affects the advantage theenterprise could get from the market. It is so important and practical that theenterprise should improve revenue based on the Lead-time management. Thisstudy mainly deals with the problem of simultaneous optimization ofscheduling and lead-time quotation in MTO. Suppose there is a single-stageproduction system with online orders or unpredictable future orderinformation, and orders have limitation for due-dates. Customers areimmediately quoted a strict lead-time on their arrival by the manufacturer andhave rights to place the order or not. The manufacturer must simultaneouslydecide the lead-time and scheduling plan of the order to maximize the profit.This research establishes a mathematical model to combine simultaneouslydecisions of order accepting/refusing, lead-time quotation and scheduling, tomake trade off among them and to maximize the long-term average profit. Aheuristic algorithm--SPM is designed to optimize the process of orderaccepting and scheduling, including a specific computational mechanism toestimate the impact of accepting an order and quoting a corresponding lead-time to the future profit gain. Through the numerical experiments, it isconcluded that SPM is much better than the common FCFS (First Come FirstService). Further, optimal range of the main control parameter in thealgorithm is explored in different combinations of parameter levels. The partof the orthogonal experimental design gives results of ANOVA, ranking theproportion of high-margin order as the most influential factor in the problem.Therefore, the decision-maker could easily customize the control parameterproperly according to the change of the major factor.