Linear physical programming for production planning optimization

Production planning plays a central role in the successful management of any production-oriented company. Production planning is typically multiobjective in nature and the management thereof generally consists of balancing/resolving many conflicting objectives. Previous works have shown that successful production planning can be achieved using multiobjective optimization. In this paper, a production-planning model conducive to optimization is developed and used with the preference-based optimization method Linear Physical Programming (LPP). Machine yield rates and production time are important components of the proposed model and examples that illustrate the optimization process. The key contribution of this work is in the application of LPP to a newly developed production planning model. The benefit of LPP is that it capitalizes on latent human experience and previous design knowledge when such is available. Otherwise, LPP effectively helps the designer explore the design space.