On ‘Manufacturing batch size and ordering policy for products with shelf lives’

The economic lot scheduling problem (ELSP) with common cycle time, shelf life restriction for one item, generalized production cost and raw material inventory planning was addressed in a recent paper by Chowdhury and Sarker (2001). In this paper, we show that their method for simultaneously adjusting the common cycle time and the production rate for the item with binding shelf constraint is flawed and does not determine the optimal production rate and cycle time. We provide a correct method for this. Other aspects about this problem and the model are also discussed.