Supporting quick response through scheduling of make-to-stock production/inventory systems

Scheduling of traditional job shops in make-to-order systems has seen extensive research over the past three decades. In such systems, performance is often related to various job completion metrics such as average flow time, average lateness, etc. This paper examines a scheduling problem in a make-to-stock environment where individual job completion measures are irrelevant. In this case, customer orders are satisfied through on-hand inventory where customer service is more closely related to the manufacturer's ability to quickly satisfy demand. We consider the role of scheduling in reducing inventories and improving customer service in the context of a manufacturer who assembles several different products on a single assembly line. We develop scheduling rules for such a system and experimentally compare their performance to those typically used in such environments. Our results indicate that rules which consider the inventory position and demand forecast outperform traditional fixed cycle rules.