Improved Heuristics for Multi-Stage Requirements Planning Systems

Joseph D. Blackburn and Robert A. Millen
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Joseph D. Blackburn: Vanderbilt University
Robert A. Millen: Northeastern University

Management Science, 1982, vol. 28, issue 1, 44-56

Abstract: Most of the recent studies of heuristic lot-sizing techniques for multi-stage material requirements planning systems have investigated the problem in the context of a single stage. In this paper, the multi-stage problem is first modeled analytically to indicate the potential errors inherent in the commonly proposed single-pass, stage-by-stage approaches (e.g., Wagner-Whitin). Then, based on this analysis, several simple cost modifications are suggested to improve the global optimality of these procedures. The effectiveness of these alternative modifications is tested through a series of simulation experiments. It is concluded that some of these modifications consistently improve the performance of the stage-by-stage approaches.

Keywords: material requirements planning; lot-sizing; heuristics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1982
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