Period batch control for group technology—An improved procedure

Period batch control is usually recommended in literature to overcome the problems of load variation and ineffective resource utilization in Group Technology by forming common production cycles. This paper presents a procedure for determining common production cycles. It is of low computational burden, and improves upon an earlier procedure. It can be easily implemented in widely used spreadsheets, thus enhancing its acceptance by practitioners. Computational comparisons with a procedure from earlier literature are provided, and spreadsheet implementation details are discussed.