A comparison of two lot sizing-sequencing heuristics for the process industry

Two heuristics for operational production planning in a chemical processing environment are compared, characterized by a single bottleneck machine, fixed batch sizes, sequence-dependent setup-times, as well as production and storage constraints. Performance on both heuristics is measured by means of simulation experiments in which the planning horizon is partially frozen and rolled a number of times, as would be the case in practical applications. Furthermore, demand uncertainty is simulated as well as the variability among setup times. The performance measure used is the total cost for executing a particular production plan over its entire planning horizon.