Aggregate production planning with learning effect and uncertain demand : A case based study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of learning effect and demand uncertainty on aggregate production planning (APP), provide practitioners with some important managerial implications for improving production planning and productivity. Design/methodology/approach – Motivated by the background of one labour-intensive manufacturing firm – a mosquito expellant factory – an APP model considering workforce learning effect and demand uncertainty is established. Numerical example and comparison with other two models without considering learning and uncertainty of demand are conducted. Findings – The result shows that taking into account the uncertain demand and learning effect can reduce total production cost and increase flexibility of APP. Practical implications – Managerial implications are provided for practitioners with four propositions on improving workforce learning effect, i.e. emphasizing employee training, combing individual and organizational learning and reduction of forgetting effect. Originality/value – This paper has practice value in improving APP in labor-intensive manufacturing.