Effective Heuristics for Capacitated Production Planning with Multiperiod Production and Demand with Forecast Band Refinement

In this paper we extend forecast band evolution and capacitated production modelling to the multiperiod demand case. In this model, forecasts of discrete demand for any period are modelled as bands and defined by lower and upper bounds on demand, such that future forecasts lie within the current band. We develop heuristics that utilize knowledge of demand forecast evolution to make production decisions in capacitated production planning environments. In our computational study we explore the efficiency of our heuristics, and also explore the impact of seasonality on demand and availability of information updates.