An unit cost adjusting heuristic algorithm for the integrated planning and scheduling of a two-stage supply chain
Abstract: The stable
relationship of one-supplier-one-customer is replaced by a dynamic relationship
of multi-supplier-multi-customer in current market gradually, and efficient
scheduling techniques are important tools of the dynamic supply chain
relationship establishing process. This paper studies the optimization of the
integrated planning and scheduling problem of a two-stage supply chain with
multiple manufacturers and multiple retailers to obtain a minimum supply chain
operating cost, whose manufacturers have different production capacities,
holding and producing cost rates, transportation costs to retailers.
Design/methodology/approach: As a complex task allocation and scheduling
problem, this paper sets up an INLP model for it and designs a Unit Cost
Adjusting (UCA) heuristic algorithm that adjust the suppliers’ supplying
quantity according to their unit costs step by step to solve the model.
Findings: Relying on the contrasting analysis between the UCA and the
Lingo solvers for optimizing many numerical experiments, results show that the
INLP model and the UCA algorithm can obtain its near optimal solution of the
two-stage supply chain’s planning and scheduling problem within very short CPU
time.
Research limitations/implications: The proposed UCA heuristic can easily
help managers to optimizing the two-stage supply chain scheduling problems
which doesn’t include the delivery time and batch of orders. For two-stage
supply chains are the most common form of actual commercial relationships, so
to make some modification and study on the UCA heuristic should be able to
optimize the integrated planning and scheduling problems of a supply chain with
more reality constraints.
Originality/value: This research proposes an innovative UCA heuristic for
optimizing the integrated planning and scheduling problem of two-stage supply
chains with the constraints of suppliers’ production capacity and the orders’
delivering time, and has a great practical significance to the dynamic
relationship establishment of multi-supplier-multi-customer in current market.
Keywords: supply chain,
planning and scheduling, unit cost adjusting, UCA heuristic, dynamic
relationship
Author: Jianhua Wang, Xianfeng
Huang, Qiang Mei, Gang Tian
Journal Code: jptindustrigg140085