Abstract
Biopharmaceutical products involve high margins but are subject to quality controls during production and to limited product shelf life. Consequently, production planning becomes a challenging task: both inventory and obsolescence costs must be reduced while finding lot sizes that ensure cost-efficient operations. In this paper, we consider operational lot sizing for a multi-level biopharmaceutical manufacturing process that is organized as a flexible flow shop, i.e., parallel and non-identical resources at several production levels. The manufacturing process involves both batch and serial production stages. The problem at hand has two industry-specific requirements: extensive quality checks per lot produced and a restricted shelf life for products. We formulate a mathematical model of this multi-level capacitated lot sizing problem and apply a Fix-and-Optimize heuristic to find high-quality solutions in a reasonable time frame. Modeling challenges and numerical results are provided using a real-life case example from the biopharmaceutical industry.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
