Multi-level production planning problems in which multiple items compete for the same resources frequently occur in practice, yet remain daunting in their difficulty to solve. In this paper, we propose a heuristic framework that can generate high quality feasible solutions quickly for various...

In problems involving the simultaneous optimization of production and transportation, the requirement that an order can only be shipped once its production has been completed is a natural one. One example is a problem of optimizing shipping costs subject to a production capacity constraint...