Measuring and improving planning stability of reorder-point lot-sizing policies

Abstract

In this paper measures for characterizing different types of planning stability in material-coordination systems are suggested and applied to analyze the stability performance of ( s, nQ)- and ( s, S)-policies for a single-stage system simulated in a rolling horizon environment. Extending the considered reorder-point lot-sizing policies by introducing a stabilization parameter, an efficient method to improve their planning stability is proposed and compared to the effects on planning stability, total costs and service-levels achieved when freezing a part of each planning cycle.