Planning the Production of Bicycles

Contents

Problem description

A company produces bicycles for children. The sales forecast in thousand of units for the coming year are given in the following table. The company has a capacity of 30,000 bicycles per month. It is possible to augment the production by up to 50% through overtime working, but this increases the production cost for a bicycle from the usual $ 32 to $ 40.

Sales forecasts for the coming year in thousand units

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|Jan|Feb|Mar|Apr|May|Jun|Jul|Aug|Sep|Oct|Nov|Dec|
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| 30| 15| 15| 25| 33| 40| 45| 45| 26| 14| 25| 30|
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

Currently there are 2,000 bicycles in stock. The storage costs have been calculated as $ 5 per unit held in stock at the end of a month. We assume that the storage capacity at the company is virtually unlimited (in practice this means that the real capacity, that is quite obviously limited, does not impose any limits in our case). We are at the first of January. Which quantities need to be produced and stored in the course of the next twelve months in order to satisfy the forecast demand and minimize the total cost?

Variables

normcapacity          the normal production capacity
extracapacity         extra capacity
normcost              normal cost
extracost             cost per bike if overtime
demand                bikes wanted per month
startstock            bikes in store
storagecost           cost to have a bike in store one month

Reference

Applications of optimization... Gueret, Prins, Seveaux

% Marcus Edvall, Tomlab Optimization Inc, E-mail: tomlab@tomopt.com
% Copyright (c) 2005-2009 by Tomlab Optimization Inc., $Release: 7.2.0$
% Written Oct 7, 2005.   Last modified Apr 8, 2009.

Problem setup

normcapacity  = 30000;
extracapacity = 15000;
normcost      = 32;
extracost     = 40;
demand        = [30;15;15;25;33;40;45;45;26;14;25;30]*1000;
startstock    = 2000;
storagecost   = 5;

t = length(demand); % Months

pnorm = tom('pnorm',t,1,'int');
pover = tom('pover',t,1,'int');
store = tom('store',t,1,'int');

% All slots are integers
bnds = {0 <= pnorm <= normcapacity, 0 <= pover <= extracapacity,...
    0 <= store};

% Initial demand constraint
con1 = {pnorm(1) + pover(1) + startstock == demand(1) + store(1)};

% Monthly demand constraint
con2 = {pnorm(2:end) + pover(2:end) + store(1:end-1) == ...
    demand(2:end) + store(2:end)};

% Objective
objective = sum(normcost*pnorm) + sum(extracost*pover) + ...
    sum(storagecost*store);

constraints = {bnds, con1, con2};
options = struct;
options.solver = 'cplex';
options.name   = 'Planning the Production of Bicycles';
sol = ezsolve(objective,constraints,[],options);

PriLev = 1;
if PriLev > 0
    months = length(demand);
    temp = [sol.pnorm, sol.pover, sol.store];
    for i = 1:months,
        disp(['Month ' num2str(i) ':'])
        disp(['   produce ' num2str(temp(i,1)) ' regular bikes' ])
        if temp(i,2) > 0,
            disp(['   and     ' num2str(temp(i,2)) ' extras' ])
        end
        if temp(i,3) > 0,
            disp(['   let     ' num2str(temp(i,3)) ' be stored' ])
        end
    end
end

% MODIFICATION LOG
%
% 051017 med   Created.
% 060110 per   Added documentation.
% 060125 per   Moved disp to end
% 090308 med   Converted to tomSym

Problem type appears to be: mip
===== * * * =================================================================== * * *
TOMLAB - Tomlab Optimization Inc. Development license  999001. Valid to 2010-02-05
=====================================================================================
Problem: ---  1: Planning the Production of Bicycles  f_k 11247000.000000000000000000
                                                    f(x_0)      0.000000000000000000

Solver: CPLEX.  EXIT=0.  INFORM=101.
CPLEX Branch-and-Cut MIP solver
Optimal integer solution found

FuncEv   18 
Month 1:
   produce 28000 regular bikes
Month 2:
   produce 15000 regular bikes
Month 3:
   produce 15000 regular bikes
Month 4:
   produce 28000 regular bikes
   let     3000 be stored
Month 5:
   produce 30000 regular bikes
Month 6:
   produce 30000 regular bikes
   and     10000 extras
Month 7:
   produce 30000 regular bikes
   and     15000 extras
Month 8:
   produce 30000 regular bikes
   and     15000 extras
Month 9:
   produce 26000 regular bikes
Month 10:
   produce 14000 regular bikes
Month 11:
   produce 25000 regular bikes
Month 12:
   produce 30000 regular bikes