The effect of short-term planning delays in multi-item production-inventory systems

This paper studies short-term production planning in multi-item production-inventory systems. In short-term planning we study the delays caused by frozen schedules and planning intervals. We consider three different systems that are here called the machining subcontractor, the electrical machine company, and the assembly factory. Each of these has its own special characteristics. The subcontractor has several batching delays caused by setups, the electrical machine company ships products periodically, and the assembly factory has long production times and a long shipment time for finished products. We study how these characteristics affect their short-term production planning. Simulation results show how the electrical machine company has the most noticeable advantage from planning that does not have any delays.