Euro Working Group on Lot-Sizing (EWG LOT)

The Lot-Sizing Community

Purpose and history

The purpose of this new EURO Working Group on Lot-Sizing (denoted as EWG LOT) is to advance the development and application of Operations Research methods, techniques and tools to the field of lot-sizing. Both academic and applied research will be supported by this Working Group.

Lot-sizing refers to the activity of constructing production plans in which decisions have to be taken on the level and timing of production lots, usually for several different products at the same time. The objective is typically profit maximization, which in many cases boils down to minimizing the total costs while satisfying the customers' demand. Lot-sizing is a central step in the optimization of overall supply chain activities. Efficient plans give companies a competitive advantage through lower costs and improved customer service.

It seems to be the appropriate moment for the lot-sizing community to profit from a formal forum where members could discuss their ideas and foster collaborative work. This submission was decided by the members present at IWLS'2013 (4th International Workshop on Lot Sizing), held in Brussels last August. The International Workshop on Lot Sizing has been held every year since its first edition in Gardanne, France, in 2010.

EWG LOT gathers practitioners, researchers and OR educators with interests in the area of lot-sizing and related topics. Considering the nationalities of the most active researchers, the Association of European Operational Research Societies looks to be the right environment for hosting a Working Group on Lot Sizing. It has now over 70 active members from the entire world. The majority of the members are from Europe.

Country Members Country Members
Australia 1 Luxembourg 1
Austria 1 Norway 1
Belgium 6 Portugal 5
Brazil 3 The Netherlands 5
Canada 2 Turkey 12
France 9 UK 6
Germany 13 United Arab Emirates 1
Ireland 1 USA 6
Korea 1

The objectives of the EWG LOT are as follows

  • Promote lot-sizing as an independent and important research area;
  • Promote communication (forum to share information, ideas and experiences) among individuals working in the field;
  • Promote the cooperation between members through joint projects;
  • Promote the publication of special issues and books related to this field;
  • Promote the organization of meetings and the setting up of a web page dedicated to the field;
  • Promote the organization of summer or winter schools and other training events on lot-sizing.

Its main areas of interest are

  • Characterization of novel lot-sizing problems (new objective function, new constraints, multiple criteria, ...);
  • Complexity analysis;
  • New solution approaches for large and complex lot-sizing problems;
  • Identifying and solving industrial extensions to classical lot-sizing problems;
  • Integration of lot-sizing with other research fields: Scheduling, cutting and packing, distribution or vehicle routing;
  • Effect of dealing with real life instances.

Coordinator

Board

Webmaster

  • Nabil Absi, Ecole des Mines de Saint-Etienne, France