An Iterative Procedure for the Single-Machine Multi-Product Lot Scheduling Problem

Most of the procedures that have been developed to find solutions to the single-machine, multi-product lot scheduling problem depend on judgment to define the desirable frequencies of production for the products. In this paper we describe an iterative procedure for directly determining near optimal frequencies of production for the products and the associated fundamental cycle time which, in many cases, can be used directly for constructing production schedules. In cases where feasible schedules cannot be constructed using the values from the iterative procedure, the procedure provides a basis for changing the production frequencies and the fundamental cycle time to obtain feasible schedules.