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

Abstract

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.

Citation

Chen, Z. and Sarker, B.R. (2015), "Aggregate production planning with learning effect and uncertain demand: A case based study", Journal of Modelling in Management, Vol. 10 No. 3, pp. 296-324. https://doi.org/10.1108/JM2-12-2012-0044