Planning horizons for multi-item hierarchical production scheduling problems: A heuristic search procedure

A proper planning horizon is important to the effectiveness of planning results. However, there is no planning horizon study dealing with multi-item, multi-level production planning problems which are often encountered in reality. In this study, the authors develop a direct search procedure for finding planning horizons for a multi-item hierarchical production planning process which consists of an aggregate planning problem and a master production scheduling problem. Experimental results show that the search heuristic is quite efficient in finding planning horizons for both aggregate planning problem and the master scheduling problem. The results also show that the master schedule planning horizons need not be longer than the aggregate planning horizons.