The production of several items in a single facility with linearly changing demand rates

In this paper we extend the economic lot sizing for production (ELSP) model to allow for linearly changing demand rates over a fixed planning horizon. This extension of the ELSP research provides a model that can be used in coordinating the production and marketing planning activities in a firm. The model allows the user to evaluate the impact of changes in product demand on production costs and customer service. We solve the model using a standard nonlinear programming package and show through examples based on actual production data how the model can be used to support coordinated production and marketing planning.