“Meet a GERAD researcher!” seminar

Title: Flexibility in production planning

Speaker: Raf Jans – Full Professor, Department of Logistics and Operations Management, HEC Montréal, Canada

In this talk, I will present an overview of my past and present research on lot sizing problems using Mixed Integer Programming formulations. The focus of the presentation will be on how to model three general types of flexibility within production planning. A first type of flexibility relates to process flexibility, i.e., having production resources that are capable of producing different types of products. Here we will consider the problem of finding the optimal flexibility configuration in terms of product-machine assignments. A second type of flexibility relates to product flexibility, and more specifically Bill-of-Material (BOM) flexibility. The application relates to a multi-period blending problem, where there is some degree of flexibility with respect to the proportion used of each ingredient in the final product. Finally, I will discuss demand flexibility using a lot sizing model that allows to have simultaneously backlog and lost sales in case of a stockout.

---

Coffee and biscuits will be offered at the beginning of the seminar.
Welcome to everyone!