Economic Selection of Optimum Process Mean for a Mixture Production Process

This paper considers the problem of optimally choosing the sub-process means of a mixture production process where two important ingredients are mixed. The quantity of each ingredient is controlled through each corresponding sub-process. The values of the sub-process mean directly affect the defective rate, production, scrap and reprocessing costs for the mixture production process. After inspecting every incoming item, each conforming item is sold in a regular market for a fixed price and any nonconforming item is scraped. A model is constructed on the basis of the selling price, production, inspection, and scrap and reprocessing costs. The goal is to determine the optimum sub-process mean values based on maximizing expected profit function relating selling price and cost components. A method of finding the optimum sub-process means is presented when the quantities of the two ingredients are assumed to be normally distributed with known variances. A numerical example is given and numerical studies are performed.