Modelling rescheduling activities in a multi-period production–inventory system

Decisions for planning production activities for multi-period production–inventory systems have been studied in a number of papers applying input–output analysis and the Laplace tranform. The decisions have concerned activities spread out over time without having the opportunity to adjust future decisions when the external and/or internal circumstances change. In this paper, we extend the analysis to situations when rescheduling is possible. Firstly, different classes of causes justifying rescheduling activities are presented including periodic rescheduling and ‘net change’. Secondly, in terms of previously developed theory, we model the behaviour of a simple single-level production–inventory system for which its production plan may be modified at one point in the future.