An improved version of the production switching heuristic for the aggregate production planning problem

The production switching heuristic (PSH) is recognized as an effective solution method for the aggregate production planning problem in industries where production is limited to discrete levels. However, the authors find that the PSH is not sufficiently responsive to demand fluctuation and tends to make belated decisions. This shortcoming stems mainly from the switching mechanism. This paper proposes an improved version of the PSH. The heuristic uses an improved switching mechanism which can be shown to dominate the PSH. The effectiveness of the proposed heuristic is investigated with several well known problems including the paint factory problem. The results are compared with those of the linear decision rule and the linear programming model as well as the PSH.