Optimal Lead Time Policies

Mark L. Spearman and Rachel Q. Zhang
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Mark L. Spearman: School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332
Rachel Q. Zhang: Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109

Management Science, 1999, vol. 45, issue 2, 290-295

Abstract: This paper examines two due-date setting problems first studied by Wein (1991). The first problem seeks to minimize the average due-date lead time (due-date minus arrival date) of jobs subject to a constraint on the fraction of tardy jobs (Problem I) while the second uses the same objective subject to a constraint on average job tardiness (Problem II). We show that under very general conditions, Problem I leads to unethical practice (i.e., quote lead times for which there is no hope to achieve when the system is highly congested) while Problem II results in policies that quote lead times that are monotonically increasing with the congestion level. Furthermore, we prove that Problem II is equivalent to a policy that is widely used and is easy to compute. This policy quotes lead times that guarantee the same serviceability level (the fraction of tardy jobs) to all jobs.

Keywords: scheduling; leadtime; serviceability; tardiness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:45:y:1999:i:2:p:290-295

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