Interdivisional production scheduling with social negotiation mechanism

Abstract

In a dynamically changing manufacturing environment, it is difficult to reduce total manufacturing costs by optimising interdivisional scheduling throughout a firm, from raw material procurement to final shipping, because of fluctuating demand. To solve this problem, we propose a new interdivisional scheduling method that decomposes the entire original problem into process-dependent sub-problems. The sub-problems mutually negotiate and co-operate using Lagrangian decomposition coordination method, and adjust the production lead time as social manner. The method's feasibility is assessed using computer simulations with practical problems. Results show that the proposed method produces feasible solutions that minimise overall production costs.