Strategic WIP Inventory Positioning for Make-to-Order Production with Stochastic Processing Times

It is vital for make-to-order manufacturers to shorten the lead time to meet the customers’ requirements. Holding work-in-process (WIP) inventory at more stations can reduce the lead time, but it also brings about higher inventory holding cost. Therefore, it is important to seek out the optimal set...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jingjing Jiang, Suk-Chul Rim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Limited 2017-01-01
Series:Mathematical Problems in Engineering
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2017/8635979
Description
Summary:It is vital for make-to-order manufacturers to shorten the lead time to meet the customers’ requirements. Holding work-in-process (WIP) inventory at more stations can reduce the lead time, but it also brings about higher inventory holding cost. Therefore, it is important to seek out the optimal set of stations to hold WIP inventory to minimize the total inventory holding cost, while meeting the required due date for the final product at the same time. Since the problem with deterministic processing times at the stations has been addressed, as a natural extension, in this study, we address the problem with stochastic processing times, which is more realistic in the manufacturing environment. Assuming that the processing times follow normal distributions, we propose a solution procedure using genetic algorithm.
ISSN:1024-123X
1563-5147