Robust hierarchical production planning under uncertainty

The authors consider aggregation products with similar characteristics in a two-level hierarchical production planning model. A robust aggregate plan at the upper level is such that, at the lower level, a disaggregation policy exists even when detailed demands may vary within some given bounds. The authors provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the robustness of an aggregate plan and obtain a closed form expression of these conditions. A set of more manageable sufficient conditions is also presented.