On heuristic and numerical approaches in an open shop production quantity estimation problem

Starting from a hypothetical open shop production quantity estimation problem with weakly formulated objective function, this paper comparatively discusses a manual heuristic solution and an IBM-ILOG based numerical solution. Problem complexity is managed by specific partitioning strategies in the construction of heuristic solution instances. The study may serve as starting point in the systematic building of a more general heuristic solution method with potential applications in business plan forecasting.