Modeling and analysis for multi-period, multi-product and multi-resource production scheduling

This study presents a framework for solving the multi-period, multi-product and multi-resource production-scheduling (M³PS) problem. Practically, the main concern for an M³PS problem is how to satisfy two management policies: (1) each product is manufactured in a continuous manner so that once the product is on a production line, it will complete its production procedure without interruption, and (2) the number of the product's types is limited during one period. By defining the decision variables and taking into account the machine's capacity and the customers' demand, a mixed integer programming (MIP) Model is formulated. To solve this MIP problem, a two-phase approach is proposed. In phase 1, the search space of the MIP Model is transformed into a preliminary pattern by a heuristic mining algorithm so that a hyper assignment problem can be formed as a reference model to be solved. In phase 2, a stochastic global optimization procedure that incorporates a genetic algorithm with neighborhood search techniques is designed to obtain the optimal solution. A numerical experiment is presented with an illustration, and it shows that the proposed model is adequate to cope with complicate scheduling problems.