HEURISTIC LOT-SIZING APPROACHES FOR DEALING WITH MRP SYSTEM NERVOUSNESS

ABSTRACT We develop and test ways for modifying the Silver‐Meal and part‐period‐balancing lot‐sizing procedures to include the costs of schedule changes in response to changes in demand estimates. These modifications tend to reduce MRP system nervousness. We compare the performance of these approaches with the modified Wagner‐Whitin algorithm, which we have shown is optimal for static conditions. We find that the modified SilverMeal approach is only slightly more costly than the modified Wagner‐Whitin technique and that the modified part‐period‐balancing approach performs both poorly and erratically.