A framework of hierarchical receding control policy for production systems

Based on critical events, a new hierarchical control policy of an inflexible production system involving setup times and setup costs is presented. The demand is variable. The objective of the problem is to choose the rate of production and the setup times that minimize the overall costs of inventory/shortage, production, and setup over a finite horizon. At the higher level, setup times as typical events are determined without considering the dynamic property of the system. At the lower level, considering the failure of the equipment, a real time control policy is carried out on the receding horizon. The influence of c_i⁺(c_i^-) on the objective function is also addressed.