Article ID: | iaor20063247 |
Country: | United States |
Volume: | 52 |
Issue: | 5 |
Start Page Number: | 443 |
End Page Number: | 458 |
Publication Date: | Aug 2005 |
Journal: | Naval Research Logistics |
Authors: | Golany Boaz, Yang Jian, Yu Gang |
Keywords: | heuristics |
We focus on the concave-cost version of a production planning problem where a manufacturer can meet demand by either producing new items or by remanufacturing used items. Unprocessed used items are disposed. We show the NP-hardness of the problem even when all the costs are stationary. Utilizing the special structure of the extreme-point optimal solutions for the minimum concave-cost problem with a network flow type feasible region, we develop a polynomial-time heuristic for the problem. Our computational study indicates that the heuristic is a very efficient way to solve the problem as far as solution speed and quality are concerned.