Grid search based Production Switching Heuristic for aggregate production planning

The Production Switching Heuristic (PSH) developed by Mellichamp and Love has been suggested as a more realistic, practical and intuitively appealing approach to aggregate production planning (APP). In this research, PSH has been modified to present a more sophisticated open grid search procedure for solving the APP problem. The effectiveness of this approach has been demonstrated by determining a better near-optimal solution to the classic paint factory problem. The performance of the modified production switching heuristic is then compared in the context of the paint factory problem with results obtained by other prominent APP models including LDR, PPP, and PSH to conclude that the modified PSH offers a better minimum cost solution than the original PSH model.