ABSTRACT
At the beginning of each cycle, the manufacturer should decide the optimal production time, so that the production quantity should satisfy the following two requirements: one, it should meet demand and deterioration; second, all products should be sold out in each cycle, that is, at the end of each cycle, the inventory level should decrease to zero. Some researchers have studied such production model for deteriorating items under different condition. For example, Yang and Wee [18] derived the optimal production time for a single-vendor, multiple-buyers system. Liao [19] derived a production model for the lotsize inventory system with fi nite production rate, taking into consideration the effect of decay and the condition of permissible delay in payments. Lee and Hsu [20] developed a two-warehouse inventory model with time-dependent demand. He et al. [21] provided a solution procedure to fi nd the optimal production time under the premise that the manufacturer sells his products in multiple markets.
