Managing Operations On A Network: Integrated Manufacturing And Distribution Planning

Hierarchical production planning encompasses an extremely broad spectrum of planning problems ranging from hierarchical approaches for scheduling a single plant or perhaps even a single production line to planning and scheduling operations over an entire global supply chain. In this chapter, we focus on hierarchical planning implementations which provide guidance for managing and scheduling integrated manufacturing and distribution operations over a multi-echelon network. Specifically, we will review several case studies of hierarchical production and distribution planning implementations reported in the literature over the last several decades. These case studies span several different industries and provide insights into the common elements found in most successful HPP implementations. At the same time, these case studies will also serve to illustrate the significant differences typically found from one HPP implementation to the next. We will begin this chapter with a review of perhaps the seminal HPP implementation; namely, the HPP system developed by Hax and Meal (1975) to assist in managing the manufacturing network of a large tire producer in the United States. Other HPP case studies reviewed include one developed for a large chemical fertilizer manufacturer (Glover et. al, 1979) and one established for a ceramic tile manufacturer (Liberatore and Miller, 1985). All of these cases share the common characteristic that they represent HPP implementations designed to plan and schedule manufacturing and distribution operations in an integrated fashion over a large scale network.