ABSTRACT
Consumer products often consist of multiple components and subassemblies that require assembly before a product takes its nal form. The needed components and subassemblies may require the use of various technologies, equipment, and operations located at dierent stages and physical locations. Associated with a complex product is typically an overall recipe for creating the product, which encodes the necessary components, component and subassembly order lead times, and sequence of operations, and is known as a billof-materials. The order lead times arise between dierent production stages and correspond to the time between when a downstream stage places an order with an upstream stage, and the time the order is received by the downstream stage and ready for use in subsequent operations.
