Manufacturing planning and control entails the acquisition and allocation of limited resources to production activities so as to satisfy customer demand over a specified time horizon. As such, planning and control problems are inherently optimization problems, where the objective is to develop a plan that meets demand at minimum cost or that fills the demand that maximizes profit. The underlying optimization problem will vary due to differences in the manufacturing and market context. This chapter provides a framework for discrete-parts manufacturing planning and control and provides an overview of applicable model formulations.
Manufacturing planning and control address decisions on the acquisition, utilization and allocation of production resources to satisfy customer requirements in the most efficient and effective way. Typical decisions include work force level, production lot sizes, assignment of overtime and sequencing of production runs. Optimization models are widely applicable for providing decision support in this context.
