Synchronization of Scarce Resources for a Parallel Machine Lotsizing Problem

Christian Almeder (1) , Bernardo Almada-Lobo (2)

1 Faculty of Economics, Business and Statistics
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Management

In this paper we present a novel approach to tackle the synchronization of a secondary resource in lotsizing and scheduling problems. This kind of problem occurs in different manufacturing processes (e.g. wafer testing in the semiconductor industry, production and bottling of soft drinks). We consider a scenario of parallel unrelated machines which have to be equipped with a tool or need a special kind of resource for processing. Our approach allows tracing the assignment of these secondary resources across different machines and synchronizing their usage independently of time periods. We present extensions of the general lotsizing and scheduling problem and of the capacitated lotsizing problem. We prove that the latter model is a special case of the first one, but it performs computationally much better.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

Christian Almeder, Bernardo Almada-Lobo. Synchronization of Scarce Resources for a Parallel Machine Lotsizing Problem. International Journal of Production Research, 2011, ⟨10.1080/00207543.2010.535570⟩. ⟨hal-00711439⟩