On the Part Inventory ModelSequencing Problem: Complexity andBeam Search Heuristic

In many industries mixed-model assembly systems are increasingly suppliedout of third-party consignment stock. This novel trend gives rise to a newshort-term sequencing problem which decides on the succession of modelslaunched down the line and aims at minimizing the cost of in-process inventoryheld by the manufacturer. In this work, we investigate the mathematicalstructure of this part oriented mixed-model sequencing problem and provethat general instances of the problem are NP-hard in the strong sense. Moreover,we develop a new Beam Search heuristic, which clearly outperformsexisting solution procedures....