The Lookahead Heuristic For Multi-Item Single Machine Production Scheduling With Dynamic, Stochastic Demands

This paper presents a simple heuristic for scheduling the production of many items on a single machine when demands are both dynamic and stochastic. The heuristic is based on {s, S) type policies and relies principally on simulations of the upcoming production days (the Lookahead function) to decide if the production facility should be shut down or not on a given working shift. Comparative simulation test results show that, under varying production conditions, the Lookahead heuristic provides low total inventory and changeover costs while maintaining high service level.