Material Requirements Planning Using Variable-Sized Bin-Packing Problem Formulation with Due Date and Grouping Constraints

Abstract

Correct planning is crucial for efficient production and best quality of products. The planning processes are commonly supported with computer solutions; however manual interactions are commonly needed, as sometimes the problems do not fit the general-purpose planning systems. The manual planning approach is time consuming and prone to errors. Solutions to automatize structured problems are needed. In this paper, we deal with material requirements planning for a specific problem, where a group of work orders for one product must be produced from the same batch of material. The presented problem is motivated by the steel-processing industry, where raw materials defined in a purchase order must be cut in order to satisfy the needs of the planned work order while also minimizing waste (leftover) and tardiness, if applicable. The specific requirements of the problem (i.e., restrictions of which work orders can be produced from a particular group of raw materials) does not fit the regular planning system used by the production company, therefore a case-specific solution was developed that can be generalized also to other similar cases. To solve this problem, we propose using the generalized bin-packing problem formulation which is described as an integer programming problem. An extension of the bin-packing problem formulation was developed based on: (i) variable bin sizes, (ii) consideration of time constraints and (iii) grouping of items/bins. The method presented in the article can be applied for small- to medium-sized problems as first verified by several examples of increasing complexity and later by an industrial case study.

Material requirements planning system considering batch size and minimum order quantity for items of suppliers

“…In a research, a mixed model of limited chance planning has been developed to solve the MRP problem with mixed uncertainty by Zhu and his colleagues, in which there are both randomness and fuzzy discussions in the decision-making process regarding the determination of the stockpile size. In fact, the purpose of this model is to determine the accumulated size of all items despite random demand and fuzzy capacity limitation [20].…”

Expanding the Horizons of Manufacturing, towards Wide Integration, Smart System, and Tools

“…In the following article, Dejan Gradišar and Miha Glavan [17] consider a manufacturing problem requirement plan. This plan must satisfy the capacity needs and be available by the work order's due date.…”

Analysis of raw material inventory for insecticide packaging bottle with material requirement planning: a case study

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