On the MTO production operations inspired by the pursuit-evasion game

Abstract

In the present work, we performed a theoretical work to investigate how a make-to-order (MTO) company operates its producing plan for dealing with a rush-order-inserting problem. Firstly, we constructed two models, the time-minimized and cost-minimized model, to investigate the energy-cost generated by the prey during experiencing the pursuit-evasion game. Inspired by the natural pursuit-evasion game, two models have been extended and re-constructed to understand the cost of MTO company induced by the rush-order-inserting problem. In particular, the present results revealed that the optimal strategy adopted by the prey and the MTO manager are significantly coincident. This work provides helpful findings for operating the rush-order-inserting problem and indicates the natural behavior can be appropriately adopted to guide the manager’s decision making.