Determination of production planning policies for different products in process industries: using discrete event simulation

Abstract

The increasing attention to customer demands in the product process, and the inevitable features and costs of production processes have led researchers and artisans to manage orders and choose the right policy for production planning. This article identifies the structure for determining the optimal location of the Customer Order Decoupling Point (CODP) and the optimal production planning policy as one of the most important strategic decisions in the production process. So, we developed a discrete-event simulation model for realistic calculation of cost and flow time, under different scenarios, and we used the production and sales information of a dairy production plant for validation and implementation of the model. The results suggest that the use of a hybrid production planning policy reduces the cost and delivery time.