N. G. Medhin and Reha Uzsoy. Production Planning and Engineering Process Improvement. Dynamic Systems and Applications 29 (2020), No. 2, 220-238

https://doi.org/10.46719/dsa20202922

ABSTRACT.
An optimal control model of coordinated equipment allocation capacity between
production that generates immediate revenue and engineering process improvement activity that results in increased future output is presented. The benefit of engineering activity is modeled as a concave function of the total number of engineering lots processed to date. The production facility is represented by a nonlinear clearing function capturing the relationship between resource utilization and cycle time. We analyze the model to understand structural results and evolution of the model with numerical experiments.