Combining an adjustable fabrication rate into a multi-item stock refilling problem

摘要

To meet increasing timely multi-item demand from customers, the present-day manufacturing firms must achieve the goal of fabricating multiple products with a shorter cycle length and minimum total expenses. This study explores the optimal common cycle time for a single machine multi-item system featuring adjustable rate to facilitate managers accomplish their above-mentioned goal. An exact model is built to depict the problem with care. Mathematical derivations are used to obtain both the total cost in a fabrication cycle and total cost per unit time. Differential calculus is employed to determine the optimal cycle length for the problem. A numerical example was provided to not only show the applicability of the research result, but also expose the impacts of differences in speedup rates on diverse cost parameters and on total machine utilization to assist managerial decision makings.