The Effect of Modeling Qualities, Tones and Gages in Ceramic Supply Chains' Master Planning

Ceramic production processes are characterized by providing quantities of the same finished goods that differ in qualities, tones and gages. This aspect becomes a problem for ceramic supply chains (SCs) that should promise and serve customer orders with homogeneous quantities of the same finished good. In this paper a mathematical programming model for the centralized master planning of ceramic SC is proposed. Inputs to the master plan include demand forecasts in terms of customer order classes based on their order size and splitting percentages of a lot into homogeneous sub-lots. Then, the master plan defines the size and loading of lots to production lines and their distribution with the aim of maximizing the number of customer orders fulfilled with homogeneous quantities in the most efficient manner for the SC. Finally, the effect of modeling qualities, tones and gages in master planning is assessed.