A hierarchical planning system versus a schedule oriented planning system

In this paper we consider a situation with two types of production planning decisions: order acceptance decisions and scheduling decisions. These can be structured in a Hierarchical Planning System (HPS, where each level provides general guidelines for a lower level) or in an integrated manner (Schedule Oriented Planning System SOPS, where decisions at all levels are taken simultaneously). To investigate the behavior of both types of systems in a particular stylistic production situation, an example of a HPS will be defined as well as an example of a SOPS. Next, we compare these two examples by evaluating their performances. Results indicate that a carefully tuned HPS achieves a performance that is comparable with that of the more detailed SOPS.