Lot streaming models with a limited number of capacitated transporters in multistage batch production systems

This paper presents a more general mathematical programming model to solve a lot streaming problem in multistage batch production systems in which transportation activities are involved. The purpose of the proposed mathematical programming model is to find the optimal start time, the optimal number of transfer batches, and the optimal allocation of variable transfer batches that minimize the total cost, including the makespan cost and the transportation cost. Two efficient heuristic procedures are developed due to the large amount of computational time required to solve the proposed mathematical programming model. A practical application of the two proposed heuristic methods is demonstrated to show their real-world usefulness. We also recommend the best appropriate heuristic method that can be chosen by a production manager under a certain premise. An experiment consisting of two phases was conducted to further verify the excellent performance of the two proposed heuristic methods. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.