A Mathematical Programming Model for Tactical Planning with Set-up Continuity in a Two-stage Ceramic Firm

It is known that capacity issues in tactical production plans in a hierarchical context are relevant since its inaccurate determination may lead to unrealistic or simply non-feasible plans at the operational level. Semi-continuous industrial processes, such as ceramic ones, often imply large setups and their consideration is crucial for accurate capacity estimation. However, in most of production planning models developed in a hierarchical context at this tactical (aggregated) level, setup changes are not explicitly considered. Their consideration includes not only decisions about lot sizing of production, but also allocation, known as Capacitated Lot Sizing and Loading Problem (CLSLP). However, CLSLP does not account for set-up continuity, specially important in contexts with lengthy and costly set-ups and where product families minimum run length are similar to planning periods. In this work, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model for a two stage ceramic firm which accounts for lot sizing and loading decisions including minimum lot-sizes and set-up continuity between two consecutive periods is proposed. Set-up continuity inclusion is modelled just considering which product families are produced at the beginning and at the end of each period of time, and not the complete sequence. The model is solved over a simplified two-stage real-case within a Spanish ceramic firm. Obtained results confirm its validity