Abstract
In this paper, the relevance of integrated planning concerning decisions of production and blending in a spinning industry is studied. The scenario regards a plant that produces several yarn packages over a planning horizon. Each yarn type is produced using a blend of several cotton bales that must contain attributes to ensure the quality of the produced yarns. Three approaches to managing production and blending are compared; the first deals with the solution to the production scheduling and blending problems in a single integrated model. The second approach hierarchically addresses these problems. The third procedure combines features from the integrated and hierarchical approaches. These approaches are applied to a real-world problem, and their respective performances are analyzed. The third approach proved to deal with lot sizing, scheduling and blending in the spinning industry more efficiently. Moreover, the results indicate the importance of coordinating production and blending decisions.
Highlights
The production planning problem in the spinning industry must determine the size and sequence of yarn production lots as well as which cotton bales will provide a fiber blend that ensures quality attributes to produce required yarns
Problem determines the number of cotton bales used in each blend to feed the spinning machine. These problems arise in a two-stage production system in which the fiber blend is produced at the first stage and the yarns are produced at the second stage on various spinning machines
The integrated and hierarchical approaches can be compared by applying both to a specific set of data based on a real-world problem, in which the raw material inventory consists of 3,847 cotton bales
Summary
The production planning problem in the spinning industry must determine the size and sequence of yarn production lots as well as which cotton bales will provide a fiber blend that ensures quality attributes to produce required yarns. These decisions involve lotsizing, scheduling and blending problems. This paper aims to show that production planning must contemplate blending constraints in the decision-making process using mathematical models This implication is shown by comparing the production and blending plans given by the integrated and hierarchical approaches.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 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 call
