Journal of Applied Mathematics and Decision Sciences
Volume 2005 (2005), Issue 4, Pages 213-223
doi:10.1155/JAMDS.2005.213
A production model for a flexible production system and products
with short selling season
1The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte 28223, NC, USA
2Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel
Received 12 June 2004
Copyright © 2005 Moutaz Khouja and Abraham Mehrez. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
We address a practical problem faced by many firms. The problem is
deciding on the production levels for a product that has a very short selling season. The firm has a full period to produce and meet a lumpy demand which occurs at the end of the period. The product is no longer demanded after the end of the period. A constant production rate which minimizes average unit cost may increase holding costs. Varying the production rate at discrete points in time may increase production costs but may also decrease holding costs. In addition, allowing changes in the production rate enables the incorporation of forecast revisions into the production plan. Therefore, the best production plan depends on the flexibility of the production system and on the holding cost. In this paper, we formulate and solve a model of this production planning problem. Two models are developed to deal with two types of the average unit cost function. Numerical examples are used to illustrate the results of the model.