{"id":587,"date":"2020-12-17T04:34:45","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T04:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insyncinc.com\/heuristics-vs-linear-programming-lp-why-heuristics-are-better-for-solving-complex-supply-chain-planning-problems-in-a-tactical-time-horizon\/"},"modified":"2020-12-17T04:34:45","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T04:34:45","slug":"heuristics-vs-linear-programming-lp-why-heuristics-are-better-for-solving-complex-supply-chain-planning-problems-in-a-tactical-time-horizon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insyncinc.com\/ja\/heuristics-vs-linear-programming-lp-why-heuristics-are-better-for-solving-complex-supply-chain-planning-problems-in-a-tactical-time-horizon\/","title":{"rendered":"Heuristics vs. Linear Programming (LP): Why Heuristics are better for solving complex supply chain planning problems in a Tactical time Horizon?"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row type=”full_width_background” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” bottom_padding=”3%” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column_text css_animation=”fadeInUp”]\n

The question<\/h2>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]\n

\u201cWhich\u00a0 is better; LP or Heuristics?\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t a LP solution yield the optimal plan whereas heuristics results come somewhat close?\u201d.<\/em><\/h3>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]\n
We keep getting these questions.\u00a0 My answer is that in most short-term planning situations, where plan results have direct impact to execution, Heuristics based solutions have far greater advantages over LP based solutions. Here are some of the advantages that I have seen:<\/h5>\n[\/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”25″][vc_column_text]\n
    \n
  1. Modeling Realistic constraints:\u00a0 Heuristics based algorithms offer much more flexibility in adding detailed constraints to the model.\u00a0 Although modeling such constraints is possible in LP, getting the results in a realistic time would be a challenge.\u00a0 Most solution vendors that provide LP based solutions make assumptions and simplify the problem.\u00a0 Consequently, the plan is no longer representative of the customer\u2019s problems and business.\u00a0 One of the common simplifications is modeling discrete manufacturing as non-discrete manufacturing, because of the limitations of linear programming.\u00a0 Moreover, details and modeling of constraints like Campaign planning, WIP management, shipping calendars, are far from reach for a LP based solution.<\/li>\n
  2. Transitional Stability:\u00a0 Most LP based solutions start from a clean slate, but in most instances, such planning results causes a number of problems:\n
      \n
    1. There is a lot of variability in the output.\u00a0 Huge variances from plan to plan in many instances, cause organizations to lose faith in the system<\/li>\n
    2. Interaction with other systems:\u00a0 Planning results should take input from other systems into consideration.\u00a0 This includes schedules created by scheduling systems\/ MES, as well as manual modifications<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
    3. Root Cause Analysis:\u00a0 LP is black box solution.\u00a0 It is difficult, if not impossible to tell the specific reasoning for a certain result.\u00a0 I have seen a number of instances where planners lose trust in the system because it is not easy to explain why the results are a certain way.\u00a0 Secondly, since the results cannot be explained in an easy manner, it is difficult to assign accountability to the plan results.<\/li>\n
    4. Performance: \u00a0LP algorithms take significantly longer to run than heuristics based solutions.\u00a0 Hours compared to minutes.\u00a0 With the speed of a heuristics based solutions, planners have much more flexibility to run a number of \u201cwhat-if\u201d scenario analysis using varying parameters such as demand, supply, capacity, etc.<\/li>\n
    5. Business Workflows:\u00a0 Heuristic solutions enable a level of interactive planning that is not possible for a LP based solution.\u00a0 Workflows where users review the plan, freeze a certain part of the plan, perform quick reruns, etc are not a viable option in a LP based solution.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”full_width_background” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” bg_image=”9″ bg_position=”left top” bg_repeat=”no-repeat” scene_position=”center” top_padding=”3%” bottom_padding=”3%” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column_text css_animation=”fadeInUp” css=”.vc_custom_1606824194287{margin-top: 0px !important;}”]\n

      In conclusion<\/h2>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]In conclusion, in the short horizon the key is not which solution yields a more optimal solution. Any plan is no longer perfect the moment it is generated, due to the continuously changing circumstances. It is more important, to go with a solution that helps you to proactively plan and change course with the changing conditions.\u00a0 To this, I contend that the solution needs to contain speed, integrated analytics and modeling flexibility.<\/p>\n

      So the question is, is there an instance where LP based solutions are better suited in supply chain planning?\u00a0 The answer to this question is yes.\u00a0 LP based solutions are generally suited for longer term planning where the objective is to determine major investments, product strategy, long term supplier contracts, Asset Optimization etc.\u00a0 This is the topic of discussion for another blog. Stay tuned.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      \u201cWhich is better; LP or Heuristics? Wouldn\u2019t a LP solution yield the optimal plan whereas heuristics results come somewhat close?\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blog-ja"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insyncinc.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insyncinc.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insyncinc.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insyncinc.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insyncinc.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insyncinc.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":588,"href":"https:\/\/www.insyncinc.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587\/revisions\/588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insyncinc.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insyncinc.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insyncinc.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insyncinc.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}