Sensitivity Analysis of the Economic Lot-Sizing Problem

In this paper we study sensitivity analysis of the uncapacitated single level economic lot-sizing problem, which was introduced by Wagner and Whitin about thirty years ago. In particular we are concerned with the computation of the maximal ranges in which the numerical problem parameters may vary in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Van Hoesel, Stan, Wagelmans, Albert
Format: Working Paper
Language:en_US
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Operations Research Center 2004
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/5146
Description
Summary:In this paper we study sensitivity analysis of the uncapacitated single level economic lot-sizing problem, which was introduced by Wagner and Whitin about thirty years ago. In particular we are concerned with the computation of the maximal ranges in which the numerical problem parameters may vary individually, such that a solution already obtained remains optimal. Only recently it was discovered that faster algorithms than the Wagner-Whitin algorithm exist to solve the economic lot-sizing problem. Moreover, these algorithms reveal that the problem has more structure than was recognized so far. When performing the sensitivity analysis we exploit these newly obtained insights.