Lot-sizing in the wood furniture industry

Abstract

We consider the problem of scheduling production in a wood furniture plant. In particular, we consider the problem of selecting orders from various types of furniture products and determining their lot-sizes for production when there are sequence dependent setup times involved in the production of these items. This is termed the aggregate scheduling problem. In addition, we consider the problem of scheduling work at various production facilities in the presence of capacity constraints once the items for production and their quantities are selected. This is termed the detailed scheduling problem. The aggregate scheduling problem is formulated as a mixed integer program and solved using a dynamic programming procedure. The detailed scheduling program is a linear program and is solved using a canned linear programming package.

In order to understand the state-of-the-art in the furniture industry, various furniture plants in Southwest Virginia were visited and a national survey was conducted. The results are summarized. The survey emphasized the problem addressed in this research. In order to understand the decision points better in the furniture manufacturing process, the IDEF (ICAM definition) procedure is used to describe the furniture manufacturing process. The methodology developed is applied to a real-life problem and the results are summarized.