Multicommodity Production Planning: Qualitative Analysis and Applications

Iara Ciurria-Infosino (), Daniel Granot (), Frieda Granot () and Arthur F. Veinott
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Iara Ciurria-Infosino: Resource Analysis Branch, U.S. Air Force/A9RP, Pentagon, Washington, DC 20330
Daniel Granot: Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z2, Canada
Frieda Granot: Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z2, Canada
Arthur F. Veinott: Formerly at the Department of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California

Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2015, vol. 17, issue 4, 589-607

Abstract: We develop a qualitative analysis theory for the convex-cost dynamic multicommodity production planning problem, which can be used, without performing any computational work, to provide invaluable insight to managers when faced with the task of deciding how to respond to changes in problem environment. We first formulate the problem as a multicommodity flow problem with parameters associated with each arc–commodity pair. We then reduce the problem to an equivalent single-commodity flow problem and develop a complete characterization of conformality among production, sales, and inventory activities in various instances of the problem. By combining the conformality characterizations with the monotonicity theory of Granot and Veinott [Granot F, Veinott AF Jr (1985) Substitutes, complements and ripples in network flow. Math. Oper. Res. 10:471–497] for single-commodity problems, we study the effects of changes in problem environment on optimal production, sales, and inventory schedules in the multicommodity problem. Numerous applications are presented and analyzed.

Keywords: convex multicommodity flows; qualitative analysis; monotonicity; substitutes and complements; dynamic production planning problem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormsom:v:17:y:2015:i:4:p:589-607

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