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This start-up project for the 1995 summer quarter is funded by the Auburn Pulp and Paper Research and Education Center. This project will assess the potential value of recent research in production planning and inventory control for the U.S. Pulp and Paper Industry and will identify critical problems that can be effectively addressed by additional research. This work will leverage on Dr. Sox' continuing research on new models and methods for production and inventory planning with finite capacity and random demand. The theoretical basis for this research is already supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Based on our experience with a major pulp and paper mill in Alabama, we believe the industry can benefit significantly from this ongoing research program. Many companies face the difficulty of planning production and inventory levels for a large number of products using highly uncertain and variable forecasts for the demand of the specific products. Given the typical capital investment of most pulp and paper companies, there is a need to maintain high utilization; therefore, careful planning is needed to insure that the products produced are those that will actually be demanded by customers. Given a limited capacity for production, there is also often a need to ration or allocate this capacity among the various products over time. This allocation determines the safety stock inventories and, ultimately, the level of customer service. Many companies in the industry seem to have fairly sophisticated business information systems that can provide the data required to apply the advanced models and methods needed to effectively address these problems. During the project, we will develop additional contacts with companies associated with the Pulp and Paper Center at Auburn in order to obtain additional information about these critical issues in the industry. These contacts can also generate additional research topics in planning, scheduling, and inventory control that can be explored in subsequent projects.
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