Research Initiation: Hierarchical Production Theory and Real Time Control

工业生产中的一个重要问题是协调多产品工厂的生产过程，使生产成本和库存成本之和最小。在这项研究工作中，计划推广以前为此类工厂(例如造纸厂)的生产调度而开发的方法。首先，经典生产模型对有限期间的期末库存以及累积量或总产量进行调度。然后，考虑到能力限制，参数方法在每个周期内调度生产，以满足期末库存和总产量的计划目标。产品价格被用来激励生产，并作为偏离目标库存水平的惩罚。该程序模拟在特定时间段选择特定产品的后果。它可以快速生成好的(不是最优的)时间表，因此可以交互使用。时间表可以实时更改，以反映不断变化或不可预见的情况。将使用各种数学方法来改进产品排序、时间段的选择以及从一个产品到另一个产品的生产过渡。

An important problem in industry is coordinating production processes in multi-product factories, so as to minimize the sum of production and inventory costs. In this research effort, the plan is to generalize a method previously developed for scheduling production in such plants (e.g., paper mills). First, a classical production model schedules end-of-period inventories for finite periods, as well as cumulative or aggregate quantities of production. Then, a parametric method schedules production within each period to meet the planned goals for end-of-period inventories and total production, taking capacity constraints into consideration. Product prices are used as incentives to produce and as penalties for deviating from target inventory levels. The program simulates the consequences of choosing specific products for specific time periods. It generates good (not optimum) schedules rapidly, and thus can be used interactively. Schedules can be changed in real time to reflect changing or unforeseen conditions. A variety of mathematical methods will be used to improve product sequencing, choice of time period, and transition of production from one product to another.